Coptic language
The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using Greek letters date back to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Scholars refer to this phase as Pre-Coptic, marking a time when demotic scribes began employing more phonetic orthography. This shift occurred even before Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt in 332 BC. By the Late Period, cultural contact between Egyptians and Greeks had increased significantly. Efforts to write Coptic in the Greek alphabet probably began in the first century BC. The earliest known text from this period dates to the first century AD. This initial phase is called Old Coptic and lasts into the fourth or fifth century. Some authors distinguish between early and late Old Coptic stages within this timeframe. Old Coptic consists primarily of pagan writings of a magical or divinatory nature. These texts lack the consistent script style found in later literature. They also lack the borrowed Greek vocabulary that characterizes later Christian Coptic works. Some Old Coptic texts use exclusively Greek letters without any borrowed Demotic characters. Others incorporate more Demotic letters than became standard in later periods. The production of these pagan magical texts continued into the era of proper Coptic literature.
Six major dialects define the landscape of the Coptic language. Sahidic was spoken between Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt during the third century AD. The Gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi library are primarily written in the Sahidic dialect. However, some texts contain elements of the Subakhmimic dialect, which was used in Upper Egypt. Bohairic, the dialect of Lower Egypt, gained prominence in the ninth century. It is now the dialect used by the Coptic Church liturgically. Akhmimic flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries before no further writings were attested. Fayyumic was spoken west of the Nile Valley from the third to the tenth centuries. Lycopolitan manuscripts tend to be from the area of Asyut. Oxyrhynchite shows similarities with Fayyumic and appears in manuscripts from the fourth and fifth centuries. While many dialects reflect actual regional linguistic variation, they mostly reflect localized orthographic traditions. There are very few grammatical differences between them despite phonological and lexical variations. Sahidic remains the only dialect with a considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts.
Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek alphabet. It includes seven additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script. This structure is comparable to the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet which includes the runic letter thorn. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet that originated from Greek were normally reserved for Greek words. Old Coptic texts used several graphemes that were not retained in later literary orthography. In Sahidic, syllable boundaries may have been marked by a supralinear stroke. The stroke might also have tied letters together within one word since Coptic texts did not otherwise indicate word divisions. Bohairic uses a superposed point or small stroke known as jinkim. When jinkim is placed over a vowel it is pronounced independently. When placed over a consonant a short sound precedes it. Papyrus Bodmer VI possesses the richest of all Coptic alphabets with 35 unique graphemes. Dialects vary in their number and forms of these signs depending on local traditions.
The Muslim conquest of Egypt by Arabs came with the spread of Islam in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that Arabic replace Koine Greek as the sole administrative language. Literary Coptic gradually declined during this period. Within a few hundred years Egyptian bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa found it necessary to write his History of the Patriarchs in Arabic. The Coptic language massively declined under Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. He issued strict orders completely prohibiting the use of Coptic anywhere whether in schools public streets or family homes. Those who did not comply were liable to have their tongues removed. Oral traditions tell of removed tongues left on the street to intimidate others against speaking Coptic. As a literary language replacement began around the tenth century but would not fall entirely out of use until later. The last known literary work written in Coptic dates to the late fourteenth century. As a primary spoken language Coptic was the majority language until between the tenth and twelfth centuries. It survived as a minority primary language until at least the seventeenth century. Passive speakers over 50 years old were recorded in Pi-Solsel as late as the 1930s.
In the early twentieth century some Copts tried to revive the Coptic language but they were unsuccessful. Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria started a national Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic in the second half of the twentieth century. Several works of grammar were published including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of Egyptology contributed to this renaissance. The inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies further supported these efforts. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken today. They have attracted the interest of Copts and linguists both inside and outside of Egypt. Modern revitalisation efforts are based on the Bohairic dialect which is used as the liturgical language of the modern Coptic Orthodox Church. There are two traditions of pronunciation arising from successive reforms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The language remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Coptic Catholic Church.
Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology from its writing system. It fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress patterns. The phonological system of Later Egyptian is better known than that of the Classical phase due to greater source availability. Coptic sounds are known from various Coptic-Arabic papyri dating to the medieval Islamic period. Coptic is primarily a fusional language though some scholars suggest it has agglutinative tendencies. Its morphology relies heavily on prefixation and clitics which frequently encode multiple grammatical functions. Standard word order is subject-verb-object but can shift with appropriate prepositions before the subject. Number gender tense and mood are marked by prefixes and clitics evolved from Late Egyptian. While earlier stages used suffixation for verb conjugation Coptic largely replaced these with periphrastic constructions. For example the Middle Egyptian form *satāpafa corresponds to the Sahidic f.sotp meaning he chooses. The prefix f- encodes multiple grammatical functions simultaneously characteristic of fusional morphology. All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender either masculine or feminine usually marked through a definite article as in Romance languages.
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Common questions
When did the earliest attempts to write Coptic using Greek letters begin?
The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using Greek letters date back to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Efforts to write Coptic in the Greek alphabet probably began in the first century BC.
Which dialect of Coptic is currently used by the Coptic Church liturgically?
Bohairic, the dialect of Lower Egypt, gained prominence in the ninth century and is now the dialect used by the Coptic Church liturgically. Modern revitalisation efforts are based on the Bohairic dialect which serves as the liturgical language of the modern Coptic Orthodox Church.
What caused the massive decline of the Coptic language under Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah?
Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah issued strict orders completely prohibiting the use of Coptic anywhere whether in schools public streets or family homes. Those who did not comply were liable to have their tongues removed to intimidate others against speaking Coptic.
How many major dialects define the landscape of the Coptic language according to the script text?
Six major dialects define the landscape of the Coptic language including Sahidic, Subakhmimic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic remains the only dialect with a considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts.
When was the last known literary work written in Coptic completed?
The last known literary work written in Coptic dates to the late fourteenth century. As a primary spoken language Coptic was the majority language until between the tenth and twelfth centuries and survived as a minority primary language until at least the seventeenth century.