Editing Coptic script (section)

==History==
[[File:Coptic_alphabet.jpg|thumb|alt=ⲁⲃⲅⲇ|Coptic Alphabet (including soou)]]

{{Copts}}
{{alphabet}}
The Coptic script has a long history going back to the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]], when the Greek alphabet was used to [[Transcription (linguistics)|transcribe]] [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]] texts, with the aim of recording the correct pronunciation of Demotic. As early as the sixth century BC and as late as the second century AD, an entire series of [[ancient Egyptian religion|pre-Christian religious]] texts were written in what scholars term [[Old Coptic]], Egyptian language texts written in the [[Greek alphabet]].

In contrast to Old Coptic, seven additional Coptic letters were derived from Demotic, and many of these (though not all) are used in “true” form of Coptic writing. Coptic texts are associated with [[Christianity]], [[Gnosticism]], and [[Manichaeism]].

With the spread of [[early Christianity]] in Egypt, knowledge of [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] was lost by the late third century, as well as Demotic script slightly later, making way for a writing system more closely associated with the [[Coptic Orthodox Church]]. By the fourth century, the Coptic script was "standardized", particularly for the Sahidic dialect. (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 Orthodox Church to write their religious texts. All the Gnostic codices found at [[Nag Hammadi]] used the Coptic script.

The Old Nubian alphabet—used to write [[Old Nubian]], a [[Nilo-Saharan language]]—is an [[uncial script|uncial]] variant of the Coptic script, with additional characters borrowed from the Greek and [[Meroitic script|Meroitic]] scripts.