Editing Coptic language (section)

=== 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.