The final stage of the ancient Egyptian language — the language of early Christian Egypt and still the liturgical tongue of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Where it was spoken
Coptic developed from the spoken Egyptian of the early centuries CE and became the everyday language of Egyptian Christians from the 4th century onward. After the Arab conquest of 641, Arabic gradually displaced it; by the 17th century Coptic survived only in liturgy. The four main dialects — Sahidic, Bohairic, Fayyumic, and Akhmimic — represent different regions of the Nile valley.
What it sounded like
Unlike earlier Egyptian, Coptic uses an alphabetic script that records vowels, giving us a clear view of pronunciation. Vocabulary is overwhelmingly Egyptian with Greek loanwords for technical and ecclesiastical terms.
How it’s written
The Coptic alphabet adapts Greek uncials, supplemented by six additional letters borrowed from Demotic Egyptian to capture sounds Greek lacked. Bohairic remains the standard liturgical variety today.
Find more languages by letter
Coptic starts with C . Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Coptic":