Comparison of Adjectives in Coptic

George Ibrahim, Martina

doi:10.21608/iwnw.2024.386046

Comparison of Adjectives in Coptic

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Martina George Ibrahim

Department of Egyptology, Faculty of Archaeology, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/iwnw.2024.386046

Abstract

Coptic was able to express the second and third degrees of description: comparative and superlative, despite the fact that its adjectives only show the first degree: positive.
Comparison of adjectives has been mentioned in many Coptic grammars; however, this did not prevent the confusion in dealing with some forms and in classifying them between comparative and superlative. While there was no mention of the elative (intensification of the meaning without comparison with another).
Also, the comparison of adjectives was not mentioned under one topic, as in the vast majority of these grammars, it was under the adjectives chapter (accompanied by comparison of verbs, including adjective verbs), and in the rest of them under the prepositions used in forming comparative or superlative.
Hence, this paper comes to provide a comprehensive study of the comparison of adjectives, and reclassifying its forms under the appropriate grammatical term. It followed the analytical and comparative approaches, as the comparison is made between: ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, and Coptic, and the extent to which Coptic is influenced by both, as well as the applied one, by selecting some examples (regarding ancient Egyptian) and the Greek, Sahidic, and Bohairic New Testament texts, to be the sample for the applied study.

References

Bohairic

Crum, W. E. A Coptic Dictionary. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1939.

Černy, J. Coptic Etymological Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).

CED

Horner, G. The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect Otherwise Called Memphitic and Bohairic, 4 vols. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1898-1905.

CNTN

Horner, G. The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Southern Dialect Otherwise Called Sahidic and Thebaic, 7 vols. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1911-1924.

CNTS

Aland, Kurt, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger and Allen Wikgren. The Greek New Testament. Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 4^th edition, 1993.

GNT

Liddle, Henry G., Robert Scott and Henry S. Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 9^th edition, 1996.

LSJ

Sahidic

Adolf Erman and Hermann Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache, 7 vols. (Berlin: Academy Publisher, 1971).

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