Bentley Layton: A Coptic grammar - with chrestomathy and glossary (Sahidic dialect)

Book overview:

Bentley Layton's Coptic grammar is a reference tool for students of the classical dialect of Sahidic which was used in literary texts between the 4th and 8th centuries and was the standard language for orthodox ecclesiastical and monastic Christianity. Layton avoids all jargon and non-standard legal, scientific or magical texts, in order to provide a carefully explained grammar that is easy to use. This second edition has been revised and been expanded with a new index.

Review:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, August 3, 2008
By Paul Stevenson "Linguist" (Silver Spring, Maryland, USA)

Eminent Coptic scholar Bentley Layton has produced a masterful, comprehensive grammar of Sahidic Coptic. I found it useful even during my first semester of study, and it is indispensable for advanced study. As an advanced reference grammar, it does of course have some technical jargon. Layton's terminology is complex enough for the purpose at hand, but not gratuitously so.

Layton deals with phonology, morphology and syntax. There are only a few very rare constructions that are not covered in this work. These are mostly found in Shenute's writings, and for them you can consult Shisha-Halevy's Coptic Grammatical Categories (this work is aimed at the most advanced students and scholars, and is not accessible without considerable familiarity with technical linguistic jargon, but it is THE guide to the most obscure, complex structures to be found in Sahidic Coptic). However, I think that 99.9% of Sahidic structures are dealt with by Layton.

One of the most important chapters is the last one, titled "The Coptic Tense System." It is not very long and does not deal with every detail of Coptic tenses, but it gives an exceptionally insightful overview of the system. It even deals briefly with discourse considerations. Anyone beyond the introductory stage of study should at least read this chapter over. Understanding it fully may take time, depending on how much background you have in general linguistics, but once you do grasp this chapter, your understanding of Coptic will have reached an important new level.

One of the book's great strengths is its indexes. The Subject Index is very complete. The Select Coptic Index is marvelous. It lists a huge number of Coptic forms, particularly prefixes and combinations of prefixes (converted tense forms, etc.). It lists each homophonous form separately and gives a concise gloss of it. Thus, there are 10 entries headed ERE, each distinguished from the other. This index is frequently useful when you are trying to determine how to break up a particular string of Coptic letters you have run across in a text. The variety of possible interpretations is sometimes uncomfortably large, but Layton's index very often helps you narrow down the possibilities or see one you haven't thought of yet.