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Introduction to Sahidic Coptic: A New Coptic Grammar

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Lambdin's textbook is really unique in its presentation; he divides the book into three parts: the first is broken into 36 lessons with vocabulary, grammar and practice exercises to assist the student in the study of Sa'idic Coptic; the second is a collection of Coptic writings (all religious) for the student to work on once he has finished the lessons in Part One; and the third part is a brief lexicon for those who don't want to spend $90 for Crum's Dictionary (although I highly recommend any serious student of Coptic acquire Crum's dictionary, which was reprinted last year by the Oxford University Press). When you finish this course, you really are ready to read original Coptic texts with the assistance of a dictionary. The E.J. Brill Press has put out a number of books with Coptic texts, including the Nag Hammadi library (see my review for more information) and a catalogue of the Coptic texts in the A.S. Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and there are other publications aimed at the Coptic Christian community, though many of these are in Bohairic, which you will need Crum's dictionary for.

Those who are interested in the original language of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, will find that there are not many grammars available for Sahidic Coptic. Thomas Lambdin, the official translator of the Gospel of Thomas in James Robinson's "The Nag Hammadi Library", has written one of the best. Beginning with the Coptic alphabet, which employs the entire Greek alphabet, plus 6 characters of its own, Lambdin proceeds thru a series of lessons introducing the basic elements of Sahidic Coptic, and giving the reader extensive exercises in reading the language. In addition to the grammar lessons, however, the book includes a 150-page glossary of Coptic words, and a 50-page section of reading selections, including Luke I-V, Apophthegmata Patrum, Wisdom of Solomon, and The Life of Joseph the Carpenter. As a personal aside, this book served as the basis of my own interlinear Coptic/English translation of the Gospel of Thomas. I would highly recommend it to others.

I highly suggest this book. Unlike many introductory grammars, this text moves systematically from the least complex sentences to the most complex, introducing idiomatic expressions as one goes along. The effectiveness of his progression was very helpful for myself, as my class only had a semester to cover the bulk of this book (the first 25 lessons). The book focuses, rightly, on the various uses of the Coptic verb, but does not neglect a thorough explanation of Coptic grammar, and an introduction to the linguistic peculiarities of the language. It seems to be written for someone who has at least some background knowledge in Greek, however this should not prevent an absolute beginner from being to pick up this book and learn the language. Finally, the book uses common phrases in its exercises, such as one might find in apocryphal or canonical gospels, so that the reader develops a catalogue of phrases (vastly important in Coptic).

My only criticism is that the texts which he uses and the way he writes Coptic are far too edited and standardized, compared with the nature of the originals themselves. Had he risked having a more anomalous text, the students might be better prepared for studying manuscripts themselves.

Other reviewers have given comments on the lessons. I would just like to add some observations on the lengthy glossary that Lambdin includes (pp. 210-363). The last few pages (359-63) are a dictionary of the Greek words used in Lambdin's reading selections. These are a welcome oasis in the sparsely populated desert of the lexicography of Greek as used in Coptic.

What I most want to praise in Lambdin's glossary is the inclusion of copious lists of variant forms of roots, which abound in Coptic. At the end of the regular entries for each letter, there is an alphabetical list of variant root forms beginning with that letter, and each form is followed by the root you should look for in the main list of entries. Most of the time it starts with the same letter, but sometimes it doesn't. This listing of variant roots is a godsend for beginning students!

La "Introduction to Sahidic Coptic" de Lambdin es probablemente el único libro del mundo con el que un estudioso, sin conocimientos previos y sin la ayuda de un profesor, puede iniciarse y adquirir un grado de conocimiento suficiente como para poder traducir textos coptos que no sean especialmente dificiles u oscuros. A diferencia de otras gramáticas coptas, la de Lambdin muestra por su estructura y características un especial valor pedagógico: así el libro aparece dividido en 30 lecciones donde Lambdin va aportando y exponiendo de manera progresiva los conocimientos necesarios para poder leer y comprender textos coptos de una dificultad media. El tono del libro es además sencillo, sin tecnicismos innecesarios, con explicaciones fáciles de comprender para cualquier lector. Cada lección además propone una serie de ejercicios sencillos, pero muy bien pensados, para traducir frases y pequeños textos coptos y un vocabulario básico que el estudiante debe ir memorizando. Completan el libro una selección de textos o lecturas coptas y un vocabulario básico pero suficiente para empezar a traducir textos coptos sencillos. Ciertamente, frente a otras gramáticas anteriores como la de Walters o plumley la de Lambdin es claramante superior, y si bien es claramente inferior por su contenido y cantidad de información a la más reciente de Layton (obra por otra parte de objetivos más técnicos), es infinitamente más pedagógica y adecuada para el estudiante primerizo. Por ello, mientras otros especialistas como Layton no publiquen gramáticas dirigidas al aprendizaje y estructuradas para el estudio, la de Lambdin seguirá siendo un libro indispensable e insustituible.

Con todo, es un libro mejorable (por eso le he dado 4 estrellas en lugar de 5), y merecería la pena que Mercer University Press se decidiera a revisar la obra para que esta pueda cumplir aún mejor sus objetivos. En mi opinión esta revisión debería tener en cuenta los siguientes elementos: 1.- Mejorar las cracterísticas tipográficas de los textos (tipo de letras, títulos, negritas, cursivas, introducción de tablas y cuadros explicativos a modo de apéndices...) ya que el texto actual tiene el aspecto de un bloque de apuntes mecanografiados, bastante desanjelados y poco agradables para la vista. 2.- Revisar los contenidos poniendolos al día e incluyendo los avances que se han dado en el estudio del copto en las dos últimas decadas (no hay que olvidar que este libro fue escrito originalmente en 1982), incluyendo en las explicaciones algunas de las variantes dialectales más significativas respecto al sahídico (necesario para quienes aspiren a trabajar con textos como los de Nag Hammadi) y añadiendo algunos capítulos más, que permitan profundizar un poco más en el conocimiento del copto de lo que la actual edición permite. 3.- Ampliar el número de ejercicios de traducción e incluir la corrección o respuestas a los mismos (tal vez se podría pensar en la publicación por separado de un cuaderno con ejercicios y las claves de respuesta).

This is definitely a great introduction to Sahidic Coptic. Although I had already been studying Sahidic Coptic for quite a while using Plumley's grammar, I found this book very helpful for revising all the topics I had already learned in a student-friendly way - don't get me wrong, Plumley's grammar is great, but only if you're used to studying Philology already; besides, it is a little outdated.
Lambdin's grammar is full of reading exercises to warm the student up to the selected readings at the end. It also contains a quite thorough glossary (over 150 pages!), which is a major bonus for any student or researcher hoping to find an alternative to lugging Crum's huge dictionary around everywhere he goes. The reading sections are also plentiful and interesting, and range from canonical to apocryphal writings.
After finishing the book, I came to the conclusion that it is probably the best book there is for anyone to learn Sahidic from, regardless of whether they are total beginners or not, for even more advanced students would find it extremely useful as a reference book due to its outstanding clarity of explanation and organization.
Of course one shouldn't expect any deep insights on linguistic matters regarding the Coptic language, but that is not the objective of the book anyway.
To sum up, it's a great book and I highly recommend it.

Thomas Lambdin is one of the very few people who writes language textbooks so clear and enjoyable that they read almost like a novel. This book, like his textbooks of Biblical Hebrew and Ge'ez, is clear and well-organized. It presents enough information in each chapter as not to leave the student wondering but not so much as to overwhelm. The student who works dilligently through this book will emerge with both a good understanding of the structure of Coptic and the ability to read original texts so long as they do not present excessive philological difficulty. That is as much as one could ask, since the reading of obscure texts is a subject for more advanced study, not an introductory course. This is by far the best textbook of Coptic that I have encountered, and indeed one of the best textbooks of any written language.

This is a very good learning grammar. He starts with the nominal sentences (where the "to be" verb is impied) before moving to the more difficult verbal sentences. Highly Recommended.

There aren't too many textbooks out there for Coptic. There are more then there used to be, but it's still a very small in comparison to, say, Latin or Greek. Speaking of Greek, an knowledge of Greek can help, as there are a great number of loanwords in Coptic. Grammatically, Coptic is nothing like Greek, but knowing a bit of Greek vocabulary can go a long way. However you don't have to really know any Greek, as all of the Greek loanwords are noted and translated. Though I'm sure it's assumed you do know some Greek.

At any rate, this is a great textbook for learning Coptic. The lessons (30 in all) take you from easy to progressively harder grammatical concepts. It also starts getting you into short readings in the later lessons.

The readings after the lessons are great, and varied. This is why I find this text better then the only other major Coptic textbook out there, Coptic in 20 Lessons. In "Coptic in 20 Lessons" the readings are all taken from the same source.

There is no answer key in this book, but there isn't in "Coptic in 20 Lessons" either. However, a key to exercises for this textbook can be found online. Search Google/Yahoo/etc. for it.

This is a great textbook for learning Coptic, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.