Coptic
Sign in to savelatest stage of the Egyptian language
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Coptic is the final form of the ancient Egyptian language, used primarily by the Coptic Christian church in Egypt. It matters because it provides a direct linguistic link to pharaonic Egypt and helps scholars understand the evolution of one of humanity's oldest written languages.
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Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, romanized: Timetremənkʰēmi) is a dormant Afroasiatic language. It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Egyptians, starting from the third century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Arab conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over the centuries.
Coptic has no modern-day native speakers, and no fluent speakers apart from a number of priests although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church. It is written with the Coptic alphabet, a modified form of the Greek alphabet with seven additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script.
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Accuracy disputes from February 2025Afroasiatic languagesByzantine EgyptChristian liturgical languagesCoptic languageCoptic Orthodox ChurchEgyptian languagesExtinct languages of AfricaFusional languagesLanguage articles with Linglist codeLanguage articles with unreferenced extinction dateLanguages attested from the 2nd century