There has been many wars in Egypt which why the lost some of there language EXCLUSIVE: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ONLY EGYPTIAN FAMILY THAT STILL SPEAKS THE COPTIC LANGUAGE INSIDE EGYPT Translate this page icon ترجم المقال الي العربية - There are only four families who speak the Coptic language, and most of the members travel to Canada, Australia, or the United States. - The number of people who speak Coptic reaches around 300, an no one is still in Egypt except the family of Titti Mouris. At home, their children speak Coptic. - Titti Mouris: Egyptians must learn their mother language, which is Coptic that has been developed from hieroglyphics, besides keeping their Arabic language. - When we are in a midst of a group of people, and one of my children does something bad, their father speaks to them in Coptic and smiles because no one understands what he is saying to them – but the children understand and behave themselves. The Coptic language counts to be one of the lost languages – it does not exist in the Coptic life and is only used in European Universities and academic associations except Egypt, which is the source of this language. While there are still some people who speak this language, this is the only family in Egypt who inherited this language generation after generation. They still use it as the communication language between them. It is noteworthy that the Egyptian modern language kept a lot of words from the Coptic language, which is still in use until now. This is despite the impression, which some people get, that this is a religious language. However, Titti Mouris Abdel AlMessih, the housewife, is the only housewife who speaks Coptic. She and her children live in Alexandria, and she denied that the Coptic language is a religious language. This is clear in her dialogue with us and she exposed how much she loved this language, and the reasons why they use this language until now. We asked her in the beginning: Q: Is the Coptic language a religious language, which means is it only to be used by the Christians? A: The Coptic language is the old Egyptian language, the “hieroglyphic” language. Since the old Egyptian language used to be written by drawings, for example the letter A or Alpha, used to be drawn in the image of a bird. The image has been short cut to become the letter “a” in the Coptic language. The development from the old Egyptian language to the Coptic language came as a result of the complications of what the ancient Egyptians faced in writing and expressing themselves in pictures. It is noteworthy that the Coptic language has different slangs – one is in the north, and the Upper Egypt slang, which is used in Upper Egypt. But, the core is the same – it is one language and one meaning. Q: Why did you decide to learn the Coptic language and use it in daily life? A: When the number of speakers of the Coptic language decreased through the centuries, and started only being used by the Church through prayers and hymns, it was important that Egyptians figured out ways to revive this language side to side with the Arabic language. For example, in the country between the two rivers, they speak the Arabic language with their mother language, Farci or Kurdish. Another example, the people of Syria – some of them still speak Aramaic. The reason is that we have revived the Coptic language is to save our culture before it disappears and dies from one side. From the other side, it is to preserve the Coptic identity, which is the old Egyptian identity. We are Egyptians – we have to preserve our Egyptian identity, and we call on all Egyptians to learn the Coptic language, even if they have to fight for its revival while keeping the Arabic language in the first stage without letting go of Egypt’s first language. Q: Who were the first ones to teach the Coptic language to the kids, and how did this happen? A: There were individual attempts to revive the Coptic language. For example, from the people who taught the Coptic language is the family of Ekladios Bek and Besenti Rezkalla. He is my grandfather from my mother’s side, and my father Mouris Abdel Messih. So, Besenti Rezkalla taught his whole house the Coptic language, and he used to encourage them and give them money if someone learned a new sentence reading, writing, and pronouncing from the Coptic language. By this way, it was for him to create the first family in Alexandria that speaks the Coptic language. Q: How does your family continue to preserve the Coptic language? A: The 2nd generation grew up talking the Coptic language fluently. It was always preferred that we would marry someone who speaks the Coptic language, or who was willing to learn it before he joined this family. Also, they started calling their children with all Egyptian names like Thotmos, Htaso, Sotah, Titti, Tari, Siti, Nofer, and Rano. Before that, Ekladios Bek started in Cairo by teaching his family to speak the Coptic language, so the number of people who speak the Coptic language became about 250-300 people. They are all in four families, from now those have traveled to Australia, Germany, Canada, and United States. Q: When you decided to get married, did your husband also speak Coptic? A: No, my husband didn’t have any idea about the Coptic language. I remember when my husband came to ask for my hand, and when he first heard this condition, he requested that the first thing he learned was the swearing words and the love words. He also asked if there is a language exam prior to getting married. Now, he speaks the Coptic language fluently like the Arabic language. Q: What are the ways you follow when teaching your children the Coptic language? A: There is a way which I learned from my Father: in order to learn a new word, he would write it in Coptic on a piece of paper, and hang it on the wall or door so we could see it all the time and learn it and not forget it. While we are together in the house, we speak the Coptic language. Also, we talk with another Coptic family outside Egypt through chatting in the Coptic language, since we are using a Coptic program on the computer. Q: What are the funny situations that you experience when you use the Coptic language? A: One of the funniest situations is when I went to buy vegetables, and while I was in front of the merchant, I wasn’t thinking straight so I spoke to him in Coptic. The man looked at me strangely, and left me and went inside his store. Another time my cousin and I were in school in the first week of the first grade, and he wanted to go to the bathroom, and he asked the teacher for this in Coptic. The teacher didn’t understand, and he didn’t know the teacher didn’t understand, and it was very hard situation because he was a child and he couldn’t hold it. Also, when we are in the middle of a group of people and when my kids do something bad, their father yells at them in Coptic but smiles because he knows no one understands what he is saying – the kids know this, so they behave. Or, sometimes we are in a place when someone is not good or unwanted, so we say “naef nin,” which means “this person is not good.” Q: Does your name, Titti, have to do with the Coptic language? A: Titti comes from Nefertitti – Nefer means beauty, and Titti means a gift. Nefertitti means the beautiful gift. Q: Are there words that we use in daily life that are close to the Coptic word? A: Yes, we use many words that are close. For example: Editor’s Note: In the original Arabic article, there is a list of Coptic words and their equivalent in modern Arabic. However, this list is not translatable because the Coptic words will lose all meaning and pronunciation when translated from Coptic to Arabic and then Arabic to English. Q: Are there deep effects from the Coptic language on modern Arabic language as spoken in the Egyptian street? A: Of course, there are a lot of effects. We, as Egyptians, still use a lot of the rules from the Coptic language without noticing
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 01:52:16 +0000
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