Coptic alphabet

Coptic alphabet
Type Alphabet
Spoken languages Coptic language
Time period c. 300 AD to 14th century AD (Still used today in Coptic churches in Egypt and abroad)
Parent systems
Phoenician and Egyptian hieroglyphs
  • Greek and Demotic
    • Coptic alphabet
Sister systems Old Nubian
Latin
Cyrillic
Armenian
Unicode range

U+2C80 to U+2CFF

U+03E2 to U+03EF
ISO 15924 Copt
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.
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Demotic · Coptic

The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian Language. There are in fact several Coptic alphabets as the Coptic writing system may vary greatly among the various dialects and subdialects of the Coptic language.

Contents

History

Coptic letters in a florid Bohairic script

The Coptic alphabet has 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 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 CE 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.) Coptic is not generally used today except 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 Old Nubian alphabet—used to write Old Nubian, a Nilo-Saharan language —is written mainly in an uncial Greek alphabet, which borrows Coptic and Meroitic letters of Demotic origin into its inventory.

Form

The Coptic alphabet was the first Egyptian writing system to indicate vowels, making Coptic documents invaluable for the interpretation of earlier Egyptian texts. Some Egyptian syllables had sonorants but no vowels; in Sahidic, these were written in Coptic with a line above the entire syllable. Various scribal schools made limited use of diacritics: some used an apostrophe as a word divider and to mark clitics, a function of determinatives in logographic Egyptian; others used diereses over ⲓ and ⲩ to show that these started a new syllable, others a circumflex over any vowel for the same purpose.[1]

Coptic is largely based on the Greek alphabet, another help in interpreting older Egyptian texts,[2] with 24 letters of Greek origin; 6 or 7 more were retained from Demotic, depending on the dialect (6 in Sahidic, another each in Bohairic and Akhmimic).[1] The Coptic alphabet is more obviously Greek-based than the Cyrillic alphabet, and may be compared to, say, the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet (which also has special letters at the end which are not in the original Latin alphabet). The Coptic alphabet in turn had a strong influence on the Cyrillic alphabet..

Alphabet table

image maj. image min. majuscule minuscule numeric value name Greek
equivalent		 translit. (IPA)
CopteAmaj.png CopteAmin.png Ⲁ ⲁ 1 alpha Α, α a
CopteBmaj.png CopteBmin.png Ⲃ ⲃ 2 bēta Β, β w
CopteCmaj.png CopteCmin.png Ⲅ ⲅ 3 gamma Γ, γ k
CopteDmaj.png CopteDmin.png Ⲇ ⲇ 4 dalda Δ, δ t
CopteEmaj.png CopteEmin.png Ⲉ ⲉ 5 ei Ε, ε i
Copte6.png Copte6.png Ⲋ ⲋ 6 sou ϛ (stigma) –
CopteZmaj.png CopteZmin.png Ⲍ ⲍ 7 zēta Ζ, ζ z
CopteYmaj.png CopteYmin.png Ⲏ ⲏ 8 ēta Η, η eː
CopteTHmaj.png CopteTHmin.png Ⲑ ⲑ 9 thēta Θ, θ tʰ
CopteImaj.png CopteImin.png Ⲓ ⲓ 10 iōta Ι, ι iː
CopteKmaj.png CopteKmin.png Ⲕ ⲕ 20 kappa Κ, κ k
CopteLmaj.png CopteLmin.png Ⲗ ⲗ 30 laula Λ, λ l
CopteMmaj.png CopteMmin.png Ⲙ ⲙ 40 mē Μ, μ m
CopteNmaj.png CopteNmin.png Ⲛ ⲛ 50 nē Ν, ν n
CopteKSmaj.png CopteKSmin.png Ⲝ ⲝ 60 ksi Ξ, ξ ks
CopteOmaj.png CopteOmin.png Ⲟ ⲟ 70 ou Ο, ο u
CoptePmaj.png CoptePmin.png Ⲡ ⲡ 80 pi Π, π p
CopteRmaj.png CopteRmin.png Ⲣ ⲣ 100 rō Ρ, ρ r
CopteCCmaj.png CopteCCmin.png Ⲥ ⲥ 200 sēmma Σ, σ, ς s
CopteTmaj.png CopteTmin.png Ⲧ ⲧ 300 tau Τ, τ t
CopteUmaj.png CopteUmin.png Ⲩ ⲩ 400 he Υ, υ uː
CopteVmaj.png CopteVmin.png Ⲫ ⲫ 500 phi Φ, φ pʰ
CopteXmaj.png CopteXmin.png Ⲭ ⲭ 600 khi Χ, χ kʰ
CoptePSmaj.png CoptePSmin.png Ⲯ ⲯ 700 psi Ψ, ψ ps
CopteWmaj.png CopteWmin.png Ⲱ ⲱ 800 ō Ω, ω oː
CopteSmaj.png CopteSmin.png Ϣ ϣ šai (none) ʃ
CopteFmaj.png CopteFmin.png Ϥ ϥ 90 fai (none) f
CopteKHmaj.png CopteKHmin.png Ϧ (Ⳉ) ϧ (ⳉ) xai (none) x
CopteHmaj.png CopteHmin.png Ϩ ϩ hori (none) h
CopteJmaj.png CopteJmin.png Ϫ ϫ ḏanḏia (none) dʒ
CopteTSHmaj.png CopteTSHmin.png Ϭ ϭ qima Ϙ, ϙ q
CopteTImaj.png CopteTImin.png Ϯ ϯ ti (none) ti
Copte r barre.png Copte r barre.png Ⳁ ⳁ 900 psis ənše (none) —

Letters derived from the demotic:

hieroglyph   demotic   coptic
→ Demotique sh.png → Ϣ š
→ Demotique f.png → Ϥ f
→ Demotique kh.png → Ϧ x
→ Demotique h.png → Ϩ h
→ Demotique j.png → Ϫ dʒ
→ Demotique tsh.png → Ϭ q
→ Demotique ti.png → Ϯ ti

The additional letter xai is Ⳉ ⳉ in Akhmimic and Ⳋ ⳋ in Bohairic, both for a velar fricative /x/.

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.

Greek and Coptic
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+037x Ͱ ͱ Ͳ ͳ ʹ ͵ Ͷ ͷ     ͺ ͻ ͼ ͽ ;  
U+038x         ΄ ΅ Ά · Έ Ή Ί   Ό   Ύ Ώ
U+039x ΐ Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο
U+03Ax Π Ρ   Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω Ϊ Ϋ ά έ ή ί
U+03Bx ΰ α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο
U+03Cx π ρ ς σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω ϊ ϋ ό ύ ώ Ϗ
U+03Dx ϐ ϑ ϒ ϓ ϔ ϕ ϖ ϗ Ϙ ϙ Ϛ ϛ Ϝ ϝ Ϟ ϟ
U+03Ex Ϡ ϡ Ϣ ϣ Ϥ ϥ Ϧ ϧ Ϩ ϩ Ϫ ϫ Ϭ ϭ Ϯ ϯ
U+03Fx ϰ ϱ ϲ ϳ ϴ ϵ ϶ Ϸ ϸ Ϲ Ϻ ϻ ϼ Ͻ Ͼ Ͽ
Coptic[1]
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+2C8x Ⲁ ⲁ Ⲃ ⲃ Ⲅ ⲅ Ⲇ ⲇ Ⲉ ⲉ Ⲋ ⲋ Ⲍ ⲍ Ⲏ ⲏ
U+2C9x Ⲑ ⲑ Ⲓ ⲓ Ⲕ ⲕ Ⲗ ⲗ Ⲙ ⲙ Ⲛ ⲛ Ⲝ ⲝ Ⲟ ⲟ
U+2CAx Ⲡ ⲡ Ⲣ ⲣ Ⲥ ⲥ Ⲧ ⲧ Ⲩ ⲩ Ⲫ ⲫ Ⲭ ⲭ Ⲯ ⲯ
U+2CBx Ⲱ ⲱ Ⲳ ⲳ Ⲵ ⲵ Ⲷ ⲷ Ⲹ ⲹ Ⲻ ⲻ Ⲽ ⲽ Ⲿ ⲿ
U+2CCx Ⳁ ⳁ Ⳃ ⳃ Ⳅ ⳅ Ⳇ ⳇ Ⳉ ⳉ Ⳋ ⳋ Ⳍ ⳍ Ⳏ ⳏ
U+2CDx Ⳑ ⳑ Ⳓ ⳓ Ⳕ ⳕ Ⳗ ⳗ Ⳙ ⳙ Ⳛ ⳛ Ⳝ ⳝ Ⳟ ⳟ
U+2CEx Ⳡ ⳡ Ⳣ ⳣ ⳤ ⳥ ⳦ ⳧ ⳨ ⳩ ⳪ Ⳬ ⳬ Ⳮ ⳮ ⳯
U+2CFx ⳰ ⳱               ⳹ ⳺ ⳻ ⳼ ⳽ ⳾ ⳿
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 6.0

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 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. 1994:287–290.
  2. ↑ CampBell, George L. "Coptic." Compendium of the World's Writing Systems. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Biddles LTD, 1991. 415.

External links