COPTIC LANGUAGE

Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) language that was spoken in Egypt from about the 2nd century Ad and that represents the final stage of the ancient Egyptian language. In contrast to earlier stages of Egyptian, which were written in monumental hieroglyphs, hieratic script, or demotic script, Coptic was written in the Greek alphabet, supplemented by seven letters borrowed from demotic writing. Coptic also replaced the religious terms and expressions of earlier Egyptian with words borrowed from Greek. Coptic is usually divided by scholars into six dialects, four of which were in Upper Egypt and two of which were in Lower Egypt; these differ from one another chiefly in their sound systems. The Fayyumic dialect of Upper Egypt, spoken along the Nile River valley chiefly on the west bank, survived until the 8th century. Asyutic, or Sub-Akhmimic, spoken around Asyut, flourished in the 4th century. In it are preserved a text of the Gospel According to John and of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as a number of Gnostic documents. Akhmimic was spoken in and around the Upper Egyptian city of Akhmim. Sahidic (from Arabic, as-Sa'id [Upper Egypt]) was originally the dialect spoken around Thebes; after the 5th century it was the standard Coptic of all of Upper Egypt. It is one of the best-documented and well-known dialects. The dialects of Lower Egypt were Bashmuric, about which little is known (only a few glosses in the dialect are extant), and Bohairic (from Arabic, al-Buhayrah), originally spoken in the western part of Lower Egypt including the cities of Alexandria and Memphis. Bohairic has been used for religious purposes since the 11th century by all Coptic Christians. The latest Coptic texts date from the 14th century. See also Egyptian language.