Editing Coptic language (section)

== Dialects ==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2025}}
[[File:Sandstone stela, inscribed with Coptic text. The names Phoibammon and Abraham appear. From Egypt, find spot unknown, date known. The British Museum, London.jpg|thumb|left|Sandstone stela, inscribed with Coptic text. The names Phoibammon and Abraham appear. From Egypt, find spot unknown, date known. The British Museum, London]]
[[File:Coptic and Arabic inscriptions in an Old Cairo church.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Coptic and Arabic inscriptions in an Old Cairo church]]

There is little written evidence of dialectal differences in the pre-Coptic phases of the Egyptian language due to the centralised nature of the political and cultural institutions of ancient Egyptian society. However, literary Old and Middle (Classical) Egyptian represent the spoken dialect of Lower Egypt around the city of [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], the capital of Egypt in the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]]. Later Egyptian is more representative of the dialects spoken in Upper Egypt, especially around the area of [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] as it became the cultural and religious center of the New Kingdom.

Coptic more obviously displays a number of regional dialects that were in use from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt, south into [[Nubia]], and in the western oases. However, while many of these dialects reflect actual regional linguistic (namely phonological and some lexical) variation, they mostly reflect localized orthographic traditions with very little grammatical differences.

=== Lower Egyptian dialects ===

==== Bohairic ====
[[File:Papyrus Bodmer III p. 142.png|thumb|[[Papyrus Bodmer III]] is an early Bohairic [[manuscript]] containing the [[Gospel of John]] and parts of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]]]
The [[Bohairic Coptic|Bohairic]] (also known as Memphitic){{Citation needed|reason=According to the map shown on this very page, Memphis appears to have been within the Sahidic area.|date=July 2024}} dialect originated in the western [[Nile Delta]]. The earliest Bohairic manuscripts date to the 4th century, but most texts come from the 9th century and later; this may be due to poor preservation conditions for texts in the humid regions of northern Egypt. It shows several conservative features in [[lexicon]] and [[phonology]] not found in other dialects. Bohairic is the dialect used today as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church, replacing Sahidic some time in the eleventh century. In contemporary liturgical use, there are two traditions of pronunciation, arising from successive reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries (see [[Coptic pronunciation reform]]). Modern revitalisation efforts are based on this dialect.

Bashmuric (also known as Mansurian, Dialect G, and Bashmurian) was a sub-dialect of Bohairic most likely spoken in Eastern Delta. Its main characteristic is using solely Greek letters to represent Coptic phonemes.

=== Upper Egyptian dialects ===

==== Sahidic ====
[[File:Shred of a pottery vessel inscribed with 5 lines, Coptic Sahidic language. Byzantine period, 6th century CE. From Thebes, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.jpg|left|thumb|Pottery shard inscribed with 5 lines in Coptic Sahidic. Byzantine period, 6th century AD. From Thebes, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London]]
Sahidic (also known as Thebaic or Theban) is the dialect in which most known Coptic texts are written, and was the leading dialect in the pre-[[Islam]]ic period. Where it was spoken is a matter of debate; it name which comes from an Arabic term ''Aṣ-ṣa'id'' meaning Upper [Southern] Egypt would imply it was spoken there, but Sahidic's features seem to suggest it was spoken in the north. It is also possible that Sahidic was the urban dialect spoken in the major urban centers of Thebes and Memphis differentiating it from the other rural dialects.{{sfn|Lambdin|1983|pp=vii-viii}} Around 300 it began to be written in literary form, including translations of major portions of the [[Bible]] (see [[Coptic versions of the Bible]]). By the 6th century, a standardised spelling had been attained throughout Egypt. Almost all native authors wrote in this dialect of Coptic. Sahidic was, beginning in the 9th century, challenged by Bohairic, but is attested as late as the 14th.

While texts in other Coptic dialects are primarily translations of Greek literary and religious texts, Sahidic is the only dialect with a considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts. Because Sahidic shares most of its features with other dialects of Coptic with few peculiarities specific to itself, and has an extensive corpus of known texts, it is generally the dialect studied by learners of Coptic, particularly by scholars outside of the Coptic Church.

==== Proto-Theban ====
Proto-Theban is a dialect of Coptic only attested in a single source, as such information on it is limited but; Proto-Theban closely resembles what reconstructed Proto-Sahidic dialect would have looked like. The variant of the Coptic script used in its singular attestation is also distinct as it contains 10 letters from the Demotic Script which is significantly higher than other dialects.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dialect P (or Proto-Theban) |url=https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/cce/id/1984/ }}</ref>

==== Fayyumic ====
Fayyumic (also known as Crocodilopolic; in older works it is often called Bashmuric) was spoken primarily in the [[Faiyum]] west of the Nile Valley. It is attested from the 3rd to the 10th centuries. It is most notable for writing {{coptic|ⲗ}} (which corresponds to {{IPAslink|l}}), where other dialects generally use {{coptic|ⲣ}} {{IPAslink|r}} (probably corresponding to a [[Flap consonant|flap]] {{IPAblink|ɾ}}). In earlier stages of Egyptian, the [[Liquid consonant|liquids]] were not distinguished in writing until the New Kingdom, when Late Egyptian became the administrative language. Late Egyptian orthography utilised a [[grapheme]] that combined the graphemes for {{IPAslink|r}} and {{IPAslink|n}} in order to express {{IPAslink|l}}. Demotic for its part indicated {{IPAslink|l}} using a diacritic variety of {{IPAslink|r}}.

==== South Fayyumic ====
South Fayyumic (also called Dialect V) was spoken around modern towns of [[Beni Suef]] and [[Nasser, Egypt|Bush]] and is distinguished from central Fayyumic by not having [[lambdacism]].

==== Ashmuninic ====
Ashmuninic (also known as Hermopolic or Dialect H) was spoken around the city of [[Hermopolis|Shmun]] and shares South Fayyumic features like vowel gemination and absence of lambdacism.{{Citation needed|reason=What are the differences between this dialect and South Fayyumic?|date=July 2024}}

==== Oxyrhynchite ====
Oxyrhynchite (also known as Mesokemic or, confusingly, Middle Egyptian) is the dialect of [[Oxyrhynchus]] and surrounding areas. It shows similarities with Fayyumic and is attested in manuscripts from the fourth and fifth centuries.

==== Lycopolitan ====
Lycopolitan (also known as Subakhmimic and Assiutic) is a dialect closely related to Akhmimic in terms of when and where it was attested, but manuscripts written in Lycopolitan tend to be from the area of [[Asyut]]. The main differences between the two dialects seem to be graphic in nature. The Lycopolitan variety was used extensively for translations of [[Gnostic]] and [[Manichaean]] works, including the texts of the [[Nag Hammadi library]].

==== Akhmimic ====
Akhmimic (also called Chemmic or Panopolic) was the dialect of the area around the town of [[Akhmim]] ({{langx|grc|Πανὸς πόλις|translit=Panopolis}}). It flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries, after which no writings are attested. Akhmimic is phonologically the most archaic of the Coptic dialects. One characteristic feature is the retention of the [[phoneme]] {{IPAslink|x}}, which is realised as {{IPAslink|ʃ}} in most other dialects.

==== Aswanic ====
Aswanic (also known as Syenic) was the dialect of the area around the town of [[Aswan]]. It is very close to Akhmimic, and sometimes considered a sub-dialect, although, what makes it different is that "ϩ" is written before pronouns, for example in normal Coptic it is said ''Afso'', which means drank, but in the Aswanic dialect it is said ''Hafso''. It also has a distinctive way of writing; so the letter "{{Coptic|ⲃ}}" is written instead of the letter "ϥ".