Coptic alphabet

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Coptic alphabet
Type: Alphabet
Languages: Coptic language
Time period: c. 300 AD to 14th century AD (rare usage today)
Parent writing systems: Phoenician and Egyptian hieroglyphs
 Greek and Demotic
  Coptic alphabet
Sister writing systems: Old Nubian
Latin
Cyrillic
Armenian
Unicode range: U+2C80 to U+2CFF

U+03E2 to U+03EF
ISO 15924 code: Copt
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Coptic alphabet is an alphabet used for writing the Coptic language. It is based on the Greek alphabet, but contains some extra letters for sounds used in Coptic but not in Greek. Those letters are derived from the Demotic script, a highly cursive writing system used to write the Egyptian language.

Contents

[edit] History

Coptic letters in a florid Bohairic script
Coptic letters in a florid Bohairic script
History of the Alphabet

Middle Bronze Age 19–15th c. BC
Meroitic 3rd c. BC
Hangul 1443
Zhuyin 1913
Complete genealogy

The Coptic alphabet came into general use in Egypt during the 4th century AD. It is still used by the members of the Coptic Church to write their religious texts. All the Gnostic codices found in Nag Hammadi used the Coptic alphabet.

The Coptic alphabet did not appear overnight. There was a long history, going back to the Hellenistic period, of using the Greek alphabet to transcribe Demotic texts, with the aim of recording the correct pronunciation of the Demotic. During the first two centuries of the Common Era, an entire series of magical texts were written in what scholars term Old Coptic, Egyptian language texts written in the Greek alphabet. A number of letters, however, were derived from Demotic, and many of these (though not all) are used in "true" Coptic writing. With the spread of Christianity in Egypt, by the late 3rd century AD knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, as well as Demotic slightly later, making way for a writing system more closely associated with the Christian church. By the 4th century the Coptic alphabet was "standardised", particularly for the Sahidic dialect. (It should be noted that there are a number of differences between the alphabets as used in the various dialects in Coptic.)

The Old Nubian alphabet—used to write the Old Nubian language [unrelated to the Coptic language]—is written mainly in an uncial Greek alphabet, but it borrows Coptic and Meroitic letters of Demotic origin into its inventory. It is often incorrectly thought that Old Nubian used the entire Coptic alphabet directly, but this is not the case.

[edit] Unicode

In Unicode, most Coptic letters formerly shared codepoints with similar Greek letters, but a disunification has been accepted for version 4.1, which appeared in 2005. The new Coptic block is U+2C80 to U+2CFF. The Greek block includes seven Coptic letters derived from Demotic, and need to be included in any complete implementation of Coptic.

[edit] Alphabet table

 Capital Letter   Small Letter   Unicode*    Name1     Name2   Transliteration
A a Ⲁⲁ alfa alfa a
B b Ⲃⲃ vida beta b, v
G g Ⲅⲅ gamma gamma g
D d Ⲇⲇ dalda delta d
E e Ⲉⲉ eie eie e
^ ^ Ⲋⲋ sou sou (so), 6**
Z z Ⲍⲍ zata zeta z
Y y Ⲏⲏ hate eeta ē
: ; Ⲑⲑ thete theta th
I i Ⲓⲓ iauda iota i, y
K k Ⲕⲕ kapa kapa k
L l Ⲗⲗ laula lavla l
M m Ⲙⲙ mi mi m
N n Ⲛⲛ ni ni n
X x Ⲝⲝ ksi exsi ks, x
O o Ⲟⲟ o o o
P p Ⲡⲡ pi pi p
R r Ⲣⲣ ro ro r
C c Ⲥⲥ sima sima s
T t Ⲧⲧ tau tav t
U u Ⲩⲩ ua epsilon v, u, y
V v Ⲫⲫ fi fi ph, f
< , Ⲭⲭ khi ki kh
" ' Ⲯⲯ psi epsi ps
W w Ⲱⲱ oou oou ō
S s Ϣϣ shei shai sh
F f Ϥϥ fei fai f
Q q Ϧϧ khei khai h
H h Ϩϩ hori hori h
J j Ϫϫ gangia janja g, j
{ [ Ϭϭ shima chima c, kJ, ch
} ] Ϯϯ dei ti ti

*If you do not see the characters in this column, download New Athena Unicode.
**Note: the letter sou was used only for its numerical value, 6.

[edit] "Old Bohairic" Alphabet table

  • Alpha (a, a) as in far & at
  • Wida or Bida (b,w) as in bad, was
  • Gamma (g,n,gh) ...
  • Dalda (d) as in duck
  • Eia (a) as in at
  • So (6)
  • Zada Or Zida (z)
  • Hada Or Hida (h) (a, ee) as in at, teen
  • Tita Or Tida (t) as in town
  • ioda (i) as in pin
  • Kabba (K)
  • Laula (L)
  • Mei (M)
  • Nei(N)
  • Eksi (X)
  • O (o,oa) as in off, oat
  • Bei (b) as in boat
  • Ro (R)
  • Sima (S)
  • Dau (D,T) as in do, wet
  • ha ( i, w) as in pin, how
  • Fi (F,B) as in fat, bat
  • Kei (K,sh, kh)
  • Ebsi (bs)
  • Omega (oa) as in boat
  • shaay (sh)
  • faay (f)
  • khaay (kh)
  • hoary (h, h) as hat & occasionally, like haa (7a) in Arabic as in temsa7, 7arb
  • jandja (j) as in job
  • shima or gshima (sh)
  • de (de) as in dig

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Loprieno, Antonio. 1995. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 24–26.
  • Quaegebeur, Jan. 1982. "De la préhistoire de l'écriture copte." Orientalia lovaniensia analecta 13:125–136.
  • Ritner, Robert Kriech. 1996. "The Coptic Alphabet". In The World's Writing Systems, edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 287–290.

[edit] External links

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