Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #coptic

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Today's thread follows the historical linguistics to the present. As discussed, Nubia has a long & rich history of writing, starting w/ Meroitic script, before Old Nubian writing rose to dominance in the 6-15th C.
But what about today? How has Nubian writing been kept alive?
1/22 Teacher writing Nubian on w...
Well, the truth is, for the longest time, Nubian script had gone more or less extinct (as far as we know, anyway). Writing in Nubia, as is the case with many world cultures, was closely tied with religion, and religious change usually meant script change.
2/22 Nubian tomb with Old Nubian...Nubian children learning Ar...
The Meroitic writing system, based on Egyptian hieroglyphs and Demotic, corresponded to a period of history where Nubians and Egyptians shared a religion. Old Nubian, primarily based on Greek, corresponded to the Christian era of Nubia.
3/22 Meroitic funerary stele fro...Wall painting at Faras, Nub...
Read 22 tweets
another consequential ⭐️sound change⭐️ in #EgyptianArabic is the loss of the short vowel /i/, when 2 conditions are met:

1️⃣ the vowel doesn't carry the word stress;

2️⃣ deleting it will not create a syllable with shape CVCC (i.e. with multiple coda consonants).
examples within a word:

ˈʕārif-a → عارفة ˈʕarfa "she knows"

θaˈmāniya → تمانية taˈmanya "eight"

naḍˈḍārit-i → نضارتي naḍˈḍarti "my glasses"
consider especially the effect this has on verb paradigms:

كتبت ˈkatab-it "she wrote"
but
ˈmišiy-it → مشيت ˈmišyit "she left"

ˈʕamal-u "they did"
but
ˈrikib-u → ركبوا ˈrikbu "they stole"
Read 8 tweets
Let's explore a bit further East and browse our exquisite #Persian language resources.
@SOASLibrary has 15,000+ published items in/about Persian on its shelves.
@SOAS_SpecColl hold a very fine selection of manuscripts, rare books, periodicals and archives in Persian.
#SOASLangs ImageImageImage
Want to know more about #Persian?
Halt here and get's captivated by the history of that beautiful language recounted by Narguess Farzad for @SOAS Languages for Lockdown series, in 3 episodes:
1) bit.ly/2ZfSxTc
2) bit.ly/3gL6IFP
3) bit.ly/3217pqB
One of our shining stars of #Persian manuscripts is Ms10102: a sumptuous Mughal Court copy dated 978 AH (1570 CE) of the famous Anvār-i Suhaylī (Lights of the Canopus) by Ḥusayn Vāʻiẓ al-Kāshifī, also known as Fables of Bidpai.
#SOASLangs #Persian #Manuscripts #Mughal ImageImage
Read 49 tweets
This #SOASLangs week, we'll delve in our #African languages holdings @SOASLibrary and @SOAS_SpecColl, or rather just brush on their surface: with several 100s of languages and dialects represented, it is our most #multilingual collection!

#AfricanLanguages #Multilingualism ImageImageImage
Let's start with #Swahili also known as #Kiswahili.

This @SOAS "Language for Lockdown" video is a great introduction to the 1,200 years history of Swahili: .

#SOASLangs #SOASfromHome Image
@SOAS @CAS_SOAS @SOAS_SpecColl hold a great collection of Swahili manuscripts, see digital.soas.ac.uk/swahili.

Among them figure a few copies of al-Inkishafi "The Soul's Awakening", a 19th cent. poem by Sayyid Abdallah bin Ali bin Nassir.

#Swahili #SOASLangs #SOASfromHome #Inkishafi Image
Read 60 tweets

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