The Coptic Alphabet
-------------------
The language that was spoken in Egypt at all times and until nearly the end of
the ninth century A.D. (250 years after the Arab's conquest of Egypt) was the
Egyptian language with many dialects thereof. Gradually, it started to phase
out and got replaced by the Arabic language. By the end of the 12th century,
the dominant language of the Northern part of the country was the Arabic and
the South followed at the end of the 16th century. Three distinct phases of
the Egyptian language can be identified:
1) Ancient Egyptian Language
2) Intermediate Egyptian Language
3) New Egyptian Language
The above languages were spoken in many dialects in different parts of Egypt.
The new Egyptian language is different from the other two languages because it
started as a colloquial spoken version of the Egyptian language. Later, it
replaced the classical Egyptian written language as well.
Parallel to the changes in the language there were changes in the script. The
Egyptian original script (Hieroglyphic) was time consumming because it required
elaborate drawings. Over the centuries, its use became limited to tomb
decoration and expensive artwork. A simplified version of the Hieroglyphic
script, invented and used by the Priests and authorities, was called the
"Heratic" script. The priests duties included writing down marriage documents,
selling and buying documents,...etc. They used the Heratic script for that
purpose.
For the purpose of exchanging written texts among people, a more simplified
version of the script -- called the Demotic script -- was derived and used
during the intermediate Kingdom. The demotic script was introduced about the
same time the New Egyptian (colloquial) language started to be used for
writing.
The latest Hyrogliphic script dates back to about 450 A.D. at the island of
"Anas AlWegood", where Idols were still worshiped at this place till this time.
The New Egyptian language is also known as the "Demotic" language since it is
the colloquial Egyptian spoken by the people. The gradual replacement of
Hieroglyphic by Demotic is similar to the replacement of Latin by English
French, Italian, etc.
Coptic is the common colloquial Egyptian. Its roots stem from from the New
Egyptian Language and has a large similitude with the version of the the
Egyptian Language of the 25th Kingdom (Saees Kingdom named after its Capital:
Sa-ElHahgar).
At about 200 BC, Greek was understood in places like Alexandria due to the
influence of the Greek culture and religion. In fact many Greek words entered
the Egyptian (Coptic) language at that time. The Egyptians adopted a phonetic
Greek alphabet for their language since about 200 BC. To suit their language,
they incorporated some demotic letters that varied from 11 to 5 and finally
settled for 7 ( +1 ) demotic letters, forming a 32 alphabet for the Coptic
language.
It should be noted that the words "Hieroglyphic/Heratic/Demotic" are scientific
names and are not the names of the scripts themselves as used by the Egyptians.
The following are the characters of the Coptic Language. They are listed in
their order in the Coptic Alphabet. The ASCII characters designated to
represent each character (according to a standard developed by Copt-Net) are
also given.
------------------------------- -------------------------------
ASCII Letter Shape ASCII Letter Shape
------------------------------- -------------------------------
_ __
'_\ |__)
1. a Alpha (__\_ 2. B Vita |__)
------------------------------- -------------------------------
___ '\
3. 5 Ghamma [ ` 4. d Dhelta /\
_) /__\
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__
/__` _
5. E Ei \__, 6. e So (_`-
(_,
------------------------------- -------------------------------
_ | |
7. Z Zeta ' / 8. H Eeta |--|
/_ | |
'
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__
/ \ |
9. 8 Theta |--| 10. I Yota |
\__/ |
------------------------------- -------------------------------
_
| / ' \
11. K Kabba |< 12. ^ Lola / \
| \ / \
------------------------------- -------------------------------
| | |\ |
13. M Me |\_/| 14. N Ne | \|
| | | |
------------------------------- -------------------------------
___ __
`_/ / \
15. 3 Exi / 16. O O \__/
(_,
------------------------------- -------------------------------
_____ ___
| | | )
17. n Pi | | 18. P Ro |-'
|
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__ _____
/ ` |
19. C Sima \__, 20. T Tav |
|
------------------------------- -------------------------------
|\
/-+-\
21. Y Epsilon '\/` 22. Q Fi \_|_/
() |
------------------------------- -------------------------------
_ _
\ / ) + (
23. X Khe X 24. + Epsi (__|__)
_/ \_ |
------------------------------- -------------------------------
/ \ (_|_|
25. W Oou \_0_/ 26. y Shy |
\___/
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__
, _/
27. q Fay (__| 28. J Khay \
| \__)
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__ _ _
'__) \/
29. 2 Hory / 30. G Genga /\
\__) /__\
------------------------------- -------------------------------
__,
/_ _|___
31. 6 Tsheema (__) 32. t Tee `|
|
|
------------------------------- -------------------------------
In addition to the above letters, the Coptic language uses a special symbol
called the "Jenkem" as an apostroph. The Jenkem looks like the Latin Apostroph.
The Coptic Language makes use of abbreviations as well, especially with words
that are used frequently. An abbreviated word can be recognized by a bar on its
top. For example, the words for "Jesus Christ" (pronounced Isoos Pi'ekhrestos
in Coptic) are abbreviated as shown below (see also the Copt-Net Logo on top of
this Newsletter):
___ ___
IHC nXC (Abbreviated forms of the words "Jesus" and "Christ")
|
