Table of Contents
Preface 5
1 Introduction 7
1.1 What is this thesis about? 7
1.2 Coptic and the relevance of its research 9
1.2.1 The definition of Coptic 9
1.2.2 Vocalization, dialects and the Greek-Egyptian contact 10
1.2.3 Prehistory 16
1.3 The Coptic dialects 17
1.3.1 How many dialects are there and how are they related? 17
1.3.2 Names and sigla, the Kasser-Funk Agreement 19
1.3.3 The major literary dialects, dialectal groups from the south to the north 20
1.3.4 The current state of research 27
1.4 The sources 28
2 The Coptic noun 32
2.1 Terminology 33
2.2 Morphology 34
2.2.1 Gender, number and case 34
2.2.2 The remnant morphological plural – some considerations 38
2.3 On the edge of nominality 40
2.3.1 Is there an adjectival category in Coptic? 40
2.3.2 No verbs in Coptic? Once more on a problem of categorization 45
2.3.3 How nominal are the Copto-Greek verbs? 47
2.4 Determination 56
2.5 Adnominal modification 63
2.5.1 Possessive constructions 65
2.5.2 Attributive constructions 67
2.5.3 Partitive constructions 71
2.5.4 Quantification 72
3 Determination 75
3.1 Where do Coptic determiners come from? 75
3.2 Forms and use of the determiners in Sahidic 78
3.1.1 Articles, demonstratives and possessives 78
3.1.2 Special cases of determination 80
4
3.3 Alternative systems: a dialectal perspective 83
3.3.1 The case of Bohairic 83
3.3.2 The case of Mesokemic 88
3.3.3 The case of early Fayyumic 93
4 Possessive constructions in Coptic 95
4.1 The Sahidic distribution: Pattern A and B 95
4.2 Aspects of obligatory definiteness 112
4.2.1 The construct state phenomenon 112
4.2.2 The direct and indirect genitive constructions of Earlier Egyptian 113
4.2.3 Change and conservation 118
4.3 Possessive constructions in the early Coptic dialects – a comparative study 121
4.3.1 Lycopolitan 123
4.3.2 Akhmimic 126
4.3.3 Bohairic 128
4.3.4 Mesokemic 140
4.3.3 Dialect W 142
4.3.3 Fayyumic 144
5 Attributive constructions – a diachronic perspective 147
5.1. Attribution vs. possession 147
5.2 Reconstruction of the diachronic process: origin and development 148
5.2.1 Motivation 148
5.2.2 Syntactic and semantic preconditions for the n-marked attribution 149
5.2.3 Generalized adnominal modifier-marker 153
5.2.4 Problems with defining the exact time of the grammaticalization 154
5.3 Concluding remarks on the Coptic construction types 155
6 Conclusion 156
List of abbreviations 158
References 159