Notes on the Coptic Substratum in Egyptian Arabic Wilson B. Bishai Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 80, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep., 1960), pp. 225-229. Stable URL htp:/flinks.jstor-org/sicisici=0003-0279% 28 196007% 2F09%2980%3A3%3C225%3 ANOTCSI%31 (0%3B2-D Journal of the American Oriental Society is currently published by American Oriental Society. Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hup:/www,jstororglabout/terms.hml. ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support @ jstor.org. hupulwww jstor.org/ Tue Aug 29 15:15:41 2006Srunw: The Coins of Thamal and of Other Governors of Tarsus on the right track in reading the first two letters of the second word in nos. 1 and 2 as th and m; but the translation which he gives of the inserip- tions: “The command is the value of . ..”, and the idea that the two or three ennulets on the coins denote the value for which the coin was “com- manded” to be accepted and complete the preced- ing inscription, are very strange indeed; as is also the translation of no. 3 as: “ prescribed value; the Commander of the Faithful.” J. L. Fleischer (in footnotes to Stickel’s text) and Soret (in a note printed on p. 471) immediately expressed their doubts ‘As T have mentioned at the beginning of this article, in the same volume of the ZDMG, pp. 785-8, Tornberg gave the correct, explanation, which he, moreover, supported with the correct arguments in an exposé of admirable lucidity. He demolishes the fantastic explanation of Stickel, points out that the inscription must obviously con- tain the name of an amir, and identifies the name 48 Thamal (which he reads, following Weil, as ‘Thuml). He also argues that there is a strong presumption that @ governor of the importance of Thamal should have struck coins, and that. the coins, since they have been found by Langlois in Cilicia, probably originated in that district. ‘The 225, only point in Tornberg’s article which is open to criticism is his comment on the words mawia amir al-mu’minin in no. 3: “'The word [mawla], which hhas various meanings, can be translated in such a context, without doing violence to the language, ‘as ‘the governor appointed by al-Mugtadir.” This is approximately how people would understand it.” In fact, the title is rather a personal one, namely “freedman of the Commander of the Faithful.” ‘Tornberg’s identification was accepted, as indeed it deserved to be, by Soret and Stickel themselves (see Soret in ZDMG, 1863, pp. 716-7, and Stickel, ibid, 1858, pp. 175-6), as well as by O. Blau (“Nachlese orientalischer Miinzen,” Numisma- lische Zeitschrift, 1874-5, p. 19). Tt is, however, astonishing to see that it was rejected by F. Erd- mann (ZDMG, 1863, p. 867) in favour of other, ‘most adventurous, interpretations. On nos. 1 and 2 he reads “Timur,” while on no. 3 he reads “Nasr,” whom he identifies with the Qarakhanid ‘Nasr b. ‘Al. ‘There is no need to refute these views. We see that in the middle of the last century these coins attracted general attention; sinee then until recently there was no occasion to remember them, and so it happened that also the correct explanation which had been found for them has fallen into oblivion, NOTES ON THE COPTIC SUBSTRATUM IN EGYPTIAN ARABIC Wnsow B. Brsmar Ix 1881 ong or THe sc0sr remarkable archac- ological finds in Egypt was made. A treasure of the royal mummies of the eighteenth and nine- ‘teenth dynasties was discovered in a deep shaft in a lonely hill near the Hatshepsut temple at Deir- al-Bahri. ‘The mummies were transported by steamer to the Egyptian museum in Bilag, and while the steamer was sailing northward, crowds of Bgyptian peasants followed on both banks of the Nile all the way from Luxor to Quit. Men shouted and fired shots into the air, while women cried and wailed for the departure of the dead monarchs who hhad ruled their fathers more than three thousand, ‘years earlier. Such a phenomenon shows how lose the tie is that links the modern Egyptian peasant to his ancient forefathers, Indeed, so far ‘as many aspects of his material culture are con- cerned, the peasant of Upper Egypt may be said to be living still in the Old Kingdom. ‘The highly conservative nature of the Egyptian peasants, conditioned in part by the geographical isolation of the habitable land as well as by the cyclic rhythm imposed on their agricultural activi- James Baik, A Contury of Beoavations in the Zand of the Pharaohs (New York, 1994), p. 161236 ties by the Nile inundation, is reflected clearly in the history of their language and to less extant in their religion. In spite of successive occupations by the “Hyksos, Asyrians, Persians, Greeks, Homans, and finally the Arabs, only the language of the latter succeeded in replacing completely the native Egyptian language, commonly known in the Christian Bra as Coptic. Many scholars hold the opinion that there exists a noticeable Coptic influence on the Arabic ver- nacular of modern Egypt. Some writers have expressed this belief with various degrees of en thusiaam others, however, have found sufficient reason to oppose it G. Sobby, for instance, says When a Copt tured into a Muslim he was tound to learn Arabic That, he could not do in day or two, Teves only natural then, that he was obliged to epee tnd have felations with his coseigionits fm a mistare {1 Coptic and Arabic. Thousand dif that—eed thon © fir Arabie islet was evolved for the Inbabtante of Egypt—a mixture of Coptic and Arabic. D. Prince sounds the same belief and men- ‘ions at the close of his monograph on the modern pronunciation of Coptic that there is a consider- able influence of Coptic on sentence construct ‘and vocabulary of the present Egyptian Aral vernacular. He maintains, moreover, that the 9 sound in Egyptian Arabic is due to Coptic in- fluence and is not of an Arabie origin PF. Prae- torius and E, Littmann support the same belict of Coptic influence on Egyptian Arabic, expecially in grammar and syntax. They explain « number of Egyptian Arabic features as originating from Coptic: ‘On the contrary, O'Leary, in his article “ Notes ‘on the Coptic Language,” contradicts Prectorius and Littmann end explains as purely Arabic the examples which they considered Coptic in origin.* Worrell, working from a different point of view, belioves that it was Arabic rather which left its +6, Sobhy, Common Words ix the Spoken Arabic of Egypt (Cairo, 1960), p. 3 "'D. Prince, * The Modern Pronunciation of Coptic in ‘the Mass," J408, XXIII (1002), 3046. * Tbid,p 303. +B, Practorius, “ Koptische Spuren In der acgyptiach arabjachen Grammetik,” ZDM@, LV (1001), 145-7. B. ‘Littmann, oi ‘Koptischer Einfuss en," Bid, LV (1002), 081-4. "Delacy O'Leary, “Notes on the Coptic Language,” Oriental, TIT (1984), 243.58. In Kgyptioch- Ara Brswar: Notes on the Coptic Substratum in Egyptian Arabic traces on Coptic and not vice versa, Te contends that the Coptic sounds must have become AAra- bicized during the time in which the two languages ‘wore in contact.! He divides this period into three stages: (1) Coptic in full vitelity, but taking up Arabic words; (2) Coptic still a living language, but Arabic in Coptic letters also used; (3) Coptic 4 dead language, represented in Arabic letters." ‘Accordingly, whatever trace Coptie might have loft upon Egyptian Arabic when it held prestige luring the first stage of contact must heve been neutralized and completely disappeared when Cop- tie caused to be spoken and Arabic gained « domi nant position, Worrell also believes that the pro- nunciation of Egyptian Arabic today reflects a reliable tradition of that Arabic which was used in Bgypt during the latest Coptic period; this follows from his using the testimony of modern Egyptian Arabic to verify Coptic sounds which were written in Arabic letters E. Galtier strongly denies any grammatical Cop- tio influence on Egyptian Arabic by saying, “ apris une étude approfondie de Varabe éxyptien, avoue n’avoir trouvé aucune trace de Vinfluence de la grammaire copte et considérer catte prétendu influence comme une bypothése qui est encore loin @étre prouvée. . 2” ‘The above is a sample of the diversity of opinion regarding the subject of Coptic substratum in Egyptian Arabic. ‘This diversity is due, perhaps, to the fact that in the past those who dealt with the problem were either native Egyptian Arabicists who studied Coptic without further formal lin- guistic training, or non-Egyptians who were well trained in lingvistis, Coptic and other pertinent languages, but did not master Bgyptian Arabic, "The writer, however, has the advantage of being « native Bgyption Arabicist plas the formal lin- gist training which he received in the Oriental Sominary of The Johns Hopkins University where hhe made careful investigation of the question for his doctoral dissertatio “W. H. Worrell, Coptio Sounds (Ann Arbor), p- 122. WH, Galtier, “De Vinfluence du Copte sur 1 aregypte,” Bulictin de VInatitue frongate darckeologic orientale, 1K (1002), 212-16. ‘= Wileon B. Bishal, The Coptic Influence on Bgyptian Arabic, « doctoral dissertation submitted to the Orfental ‘Seminary of The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 1050, ‘The writer is indebted’ to W. FL