Tasoni

mark.naguib7

I am trying to learn more about the Coptic language and while I was reading about the Coptic articles, some questions came up to mind. So here they are:

What do we call Abouana's wife? tacwni, which is my sister. So why do we call her "my sister"? Would not tamau be a better choice, since she is the wife of our father?

Also, since we call the priest our father (abouna) would it not make more sense if we call her our mother (tencwni)?

andrew8345

Interesting question.

However, keep in mind that even the priest's wife addresses him as "abouna". He is also her father, although they are married. So it does seem fitting that since you now share the same father, you should call her sister.

Just my thoughts  ;)

peter_saad

I don't think just because we call Abouna father we should directly call his wife mother. The wife doesn't really have much difference than any other women except the fact that she's his wife.

mark.naguib7

[quote author=Andrew link=topic=13463.msg157263#msg157263 date=1341191510]
Interesting question.

However, keep in mind that even the priest's wife addresses him as "abouna". He is also her father, although they are married. So it does seem fitting that since you now share the same father, you should call her sister.

Just my thoughts  ;)


That is a good point and it leads to Peter's comment that she is just an ordinary woman in the church. So is she? Maybe someone who knows more about the early church can tell us if the priest's wife had a role in the church or was she an ordinary woman.

egyboy

It should be noted that "tasoni" wasn't used for the wife of a priest until recently and probably started in the diaspora. Many of my close friends who were born in Egypt simply used to call her "marat abouna".