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R&ch, F. 8mchslilcke des ernell CJelll/!l1shrie/c.f
ll(Jchde", achmimischCIl PtJpyrus der Strassburger Un;vtwtiil$.
ulld umdesbibliOlllek, mil bib/ischenTuttll d e r ~ / M J l
lIalll/sellri/l. Stra.TR. u Hilhel10 Unnoticed Coptic Trip'lI1lte
ConjugationFonn andIts Diachronic Connections." Orlen/alia 43
(1974):369-81."Akhmimoid F c a l u r c ~ in Shenoule's IdiolKL" M l
u ~ o t l 89 (1976):157-80.SinlOn. J. "Note su r Ie d o s . ~ i e r
des textcs illmlmiqucs." Ci"qlluute"uirfl de J'&oIe bib/ique
ellIfChiologiqlle de Jin15afem. MemQrial (Mariestph) lAgrange, pp.
197-201. Paris. 1940.Steindorff. G. Die ApokalypK des Elias, eine
llllbekamr/e Apolwlypst lw d 8l'l1chstllc der S o p h o r l i a .
~ApoblJpst. Tcxle und Untersuchungen 17. leipzig. 1899.Thompson. H.
11rc Gospel of St. 101m According 10 theEarliest Cop/ie
Marti/script. London, 1924.Till, W. C. "Die SteHung des
Achmlmischen." Aegyp-tlU 8 (l927a):249-57._. Die acJtmimische
Vcrsioll der ~ w i J l f HeinenProphCtCH (Codex RaineriamlS,
WiclI). Coptica 4.Copenhagen, 1927b.__ . Adll11imisdl-kop/ische
Grmmllfl/ik. Leipzig,1928. Os/erbrief ,/lid PredlCr 11/1
uchmimisclwllDIlIlek/. Leipzig, 1931._. "Coptic mblit::ll Tcxts
Published MlerVa\Chalde's List." Blllle/itr of the folm Rylll lrds
Library 42 (1959-1960):220-40.Vaschalc1e, A. A. "Ce qui a ete
public des versionscoptes de la Bible, quahieme groupe,
lexlesakhmimiqucs.' Museo" 46 (1933):306-313.VcrgOlc, J. Grammaire
cop/c. Vol. la, /lIIrodl/c/iQIl.phOlli:tique ct pho/lofogie.
morplrologie syti/helllutiqlle (stl'llcturc dcs s i " , a l l t ~ l
P l c s } . JH2rtie synehro-nique. Louvain, 1973. Vol.
lb./mrodllclioJl, phone./iquf! d plronologie. "'QrpllOIogie s ) ' t
l t l l ~ l I I a l i q l l e(struc/lire df!5 s i m a l l / ~ l I I
e s ) . partie diuehro.tiqlte.
ALEPH 27
Louvain. 1'173. Vol. 2a, Morphologic S)'II/oglllotiquc,syllloxe,
partie S)'nchro"iqlle. Louvain. 1983. Vo\.2b, Morphologic
s)'lIfagmoliqllt', partie diachro"ique.I...oll\'nin.
1983.WClI;lcndorf. W. Kop/ischts
lIulld...fjrttrouch.lX:llrbf!itet
auf Gnmd des Koprischell Halld...(jrterollchs VOIIWi/)rdm
Spiegelberg. Heidelberg, 1977.Won-ell, W. H. Coptic SOImds. Ann
Arbor, Mich .1934.
PIlTER NAGEl..
ALEPH. NOI onl) ' in Coptic but in olher languagesalso. aleph (
- rJ) is a consonant or a \ 'el ) ' sJX.'(:ia[kind: it is cCl1ainly
a laryngt:al occlusive, bUl is ilret,ll)' unvoiced? For some, it
clearly Is (e.g.,Vergote, 1973, Vol. la, pp. 12-13), whik others
hesilate to plnt:c il eilht:r tlmong the unvoiced 01 ' amongthe
voiced sounds, 01' resign themselves to pUlling ilS ( ) l l l e w h
e n ~ betwecn the two (e.g., Dicth, 1950, I'. 98;Dubois et al..
1973. p. 25; Kassel'. 1981a). It is beslthought of as a stop
followed by an abrupt cmissionor sound, ~ ' S J X . ' ( : i a l l y
a stop sept'lraling two adjacent\'Owcls, for instance al the
beginning of a sylltlbleafler a hiatus (e.g. in "rccnlcr" or in
French "13maine" [la cn]). or as a "glol lal stop" replacing
aconsonant hurried over in pronunc ia tion (e.g.," ....oncr" ror
"water"; d. thc Arabic hanlZS).In Coptic. so rar as it is really
preserved, it is in
every case a CRYI"TOPIIOSEME (that is, a phonemc notrendered by
any writtcn 1t.-lIer of its own). and it isno doubt for this reason
that its eXislcnce in Ihislanguage has long becn ignored or
disputed; eventoday it is not universally accepted. For this
reason.it occupies a very special place in the Coptic phonological
inventory.
II is true thal pharaonic Egyptian, down to ils lastfull
manifestation prior 10 Coptic (i.e. demotic). p0ssessed both thc
phoneme aleph - J and the CUlTesranding gmphcmc (lhe "Egypti:lIl
vullure" of Gar'dineI', 1957, p. 27, tl hieroglyph Ilmt, among
other
l h i n g . ~ , hecurnc :L.> in demotic; cf. du Buurguct
,1976, pp. 3,75). Now this J was, on the onc hand,almost
evcl'ywhen: muled and disappeared (d.Vergole, 1945, pp. 80-98, and
1973, Vol. lb . Ilfl.28-33; and 'AY1N); but, on the other hand. the
alephdocs indeed st:em 10 have reappean:d in Coptic as aphoneme rl
and as a prodUCI or the transfOlmalionof various other cotlSOnants.
11 is appropriatc in thisconnection 10 examine above al l what can
be observed in P. Bodmcr VI. the sole witness to DtAUlCT P(which In
ilS orthography and phonology orten lookslike what can be known
about a primith'e proto-
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,28 ALEPH
Suhidic. ppS. that became a more evolved pr'OtoSahidic. 'pS, a
reconstructed pTotoSahidic, however, nol s ituated in its regiun of
origin bu t probablyimmigmlll into Ihe Thehan region. whet't' it
was suopClimposed on II and probably also on some varietyof L; d.
Vcrgotc, 1973b, and Kassel', 1982). One canlher'e see the scribe
rendering what seems indeed tohe 1'1 by a quite particular grapheme
J., but onlysponulically, for in lhe same or similar cases he
also,through confusion, uses - (normally equivalent toI?(); or
again, as in S properly so called, he practices graphic vocalic
gemination; or finally he omicsany graph ic proceeding thaI might
rcmlcr /'1 amIpresentS an orthogronphy without vocalic
gemination,in the manner of M, for example (where it is admilted
that the phonological system has lost its primitive /'1>. Here
al"e these unique vestiges of .L(Kassel", 19R1c, p. 35):
::&.Jo..L.;, (to put) one case, hut
~ J o . ' ; ' one case;
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30 ALPHABET IN COPTIC, GREEK
__ , Kop/ischl! Gramllw/ik (Sai'dischcr IJiulck/),
milBibliugruphie, Lesesliickell wrd Wiirlerverzeidmin-en,Lcip1.ig,
1955,__ . KaJllisehe Dial
Vtrtlott, J. Phr.melique Iris/uriq/Je de l'egyplien, lesC U l l
s o m w ~ ' , Louvain, 1945.__ . Gramlllairt' caple, Vol. I a,
III/mdlic/ion, plIO'm!liqlll! eI phOflOfogie, morphologie
syllihemalique(s/rue/ure des semmrlemes), pur/Ie synchroll
iqlle,and Vol. Ib, Inlrudlle/io,r, pho'Jetique el
pllOllologie,/Ilorplro";;gie sy,r/hemaliqlle (siruclure
dessCl/lamimll.'s), parlie diaclrrolliqllC. Louvain, 1973a,__ , "Le
Dialecte copte P (P. Bodmel' VI; Prover'bes), essai
d'idelltificalion," ReVljl! d'cgyp/ologie25 (\973b):50-57,
ROOO1.l'llE KASSER
ALPHABET IN COl-TIC, CREEK. The Greekalphabet is much in
evidem:c in Coptic; in fact,among the var ious Coptic alphabets
(cr. AU'IIABETS,
