Editing Coptic language (section)

== History ==
[[File:Abydos graffito 74.png|thumb|A Demotic graffito in Greek letters from year 5 [[Horwennefer]] (200/201 BC).]]
The [[Egyptian language]] may have the longest documented history of any language, from [[Old Egyptian language|Old Egyptian]], which appeared just before 3200 BC,{{sfn|Allen|2010|p=1–2}} to its final phases as Coptic in the [[Middle Ages]]. Coptic belongs to the Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]]. Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later periods. It had analytic features like definite and [[indefinite article]]s and [[periphrasis|periphrastic]] verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after [[Egyptian language#Demotic|Demotic]] and the new writing system that was adapted from the [[Greek alphabet]].

=== Pre-Islamic period ===
[[File:Coptic liturgic inscription.JPG|right|thumb|Coptic liturgical inscription from [[Upper Egypt]], dated to the fifth or sixth century.]]

The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of which date to the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]. Scholars frequently refer to this phase as Pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the [[Late Period of ancient Egypt]], demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic orthography, a testament to the increasing cultural contact between [[Egyptians]] and [[Greeks]] even before [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquest of Egypt.

After Alexanders the Great's conquest of Egypt and the subsequent Greek administration of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] led to the widespread [[hellenization]] and Greek-Coptic bilingualism more so in [[Lower Egypt|Northern Egypt]] and especially in the [[Nile Delta]]. This led to the entrance of many Greek loanwords into Coptic, particularly in words relating to technical, legal, commercial, and technological topics.{{sfn|Lambdin|1983|pp=vii-viii}}

Coptic itself, or [[Old Coptic]], takes root in the first century. The transition from the older Egyptian scripts to the newly adapted Coptic alphabet was in part due to the decline of the traditional role played by the priestly class of [[ancient Egyptian religion]], who, unlike most ordinary Egyptians, were literate in the temple scriptoria. Old Coptic is represented mostly by non-Christian texts such as Egyptian pagan prayers and magical and astrological papyri. Many of them served as [[gloss (annotation)|glosses]] to original [[hieratic]] and demotic equivalents. The glosses may have been aimed at non-Egyptian speakers.

Under late [[Roman Egypt|Roman rule]], [[Diocletian]] persecuted many Egyptian converts to the new [[Christianity|Christian religion]], which forced new converts to flee to the Egyptian deserts. In time, the growth of these communities generated the need to write Christian Greek instructions in the Egyptian language. The early Fathers of the [[Coptic Church]], such as [[Anthony the Great]], [[Pachomius the Great]], [[Macarius of Egypt]] and [[Athanasius of Alexandria]], who otherwise usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Egyptian. The Egyptian language, now written in the Coptic alphabet, flourished in the second and third centuries. However, it was not until [[Shenoute]] that Coptic became a fully standardised literary language based on the Sahidic dialect. Shenouda's native Egyptian tongue and knowledge of Greek and rhetoric gave him the necessary tools to elevate Coptic, in content and style, to a literary height nearly equal to the position of the Egyptian language in ancient Egypt.

=== Islamic period ===
[[File:Page from 19th century Coptic Language Grammar.png|thumb|Page from 19th-century Coptic-language grammar]]

The [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]] by [[Arabs]] came with the [[spread of Islam]] in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, [[Caliph]] [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] decreed<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Online {{!}} British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG118129 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240302065803/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/biog118129 |archive-date=2024-03-02 |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.britishmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> that Arabic replace [[Koine Greek]] as the sole [[administrative language]]. Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop [[Severus ibn al-Muqaffa]] found it necessary to write his ''History of the Patriarchs'' in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically the language retained an important position, and many [[hagiography|hagiographic]] texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital.

The Coptic language massively declined under the hands of Fatimid Caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]], as part of his campaigns of religious persecution. He issued strict orders completely prohibiting the use of Coptic anywhere, whether in schools, public streets, and even homes, including mothers speaking to their children. Those who did not comply had their tongues cut off. He personally walked the streets of Cairo and eavesdropped on Coptic-speaking homes to find out if any family was speaking Coptic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSodnQEACAAJ | title=The Vision of Theophilus: Resistance Through Orality Among the Persecuted Copts | last1=Guirguis | first1=Fatin Morris | year=2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=Mark N. | last=Swanson | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6l-Eun-EzkkC | isbn=978-977-416-093-6 | title=The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641-1517) | year=2010 | publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press | access-date=2023-03-19 | archive-date=2024-05-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526082128/https://books.google.com/books?id=6l-Eun-EzkkC | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yR9JDwAAQBAJ|title=Egypt's Identities in Conflict: The Political and Religious Landscape of Copts and Muslims|pages=71–72|isbn=978-1-4766-7120-8 |last1=Naiem |first1=Girgis |date=12 February 2018 |publisher=McFarland }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Emile Maher Ishaq |url=https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/cce/id/520/rec/1 |title=Coptic language, Spoken |encyclopedia=The Coptic Encyclopedia |volume=2 |pages=604a–607a}}</ref>

As a written language, Coptic is thought to have completely given way to [[Arabic]] around the 13th century,<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://journals.openedition.org/ema/1920|title=The Transition from Coptic to Arabic|first=Samuel|last=Rubenson|date=December 31, 1996|journal=Égypte/Monde arabe|issue=27–28|pages=77–92|via=journals.openedition.org|doi=10.4000/ema.1920|doi-access=free|access-date=June 20, 2019|archive-date=September 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902083451/https://journals.openedition.org/ema/1920|url-status=live}}</ref> though it seems to have survived as a spoken language until the 17th century{{sfn|Allen|2020|p=1}} and in some localities even longer. The language may have survived in isolated pockets in [[Upper Egypt]] as late as the 19th century.<ref>James Edward Quibell, "When did Coptic become extinct?" in ''Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde'', 39 (1901), p. 87.</ref> In the village of Pi-Solsel (Az-Zayniyyah, El Zenya or Al Zeniya north of [[Luxor]]), [[Passive speaker (language)|passive speakers]] over 50 years old were recorded as late as the 1930s, and traces of traditional vernacular Coptic reported to exist in other places such as [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] and [[Dendera]].<ref>Werner Vycichl, [https://copticsounds.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pi-solsel-ein-dorf-mit-koptischer-uberlieferung1.pdf ''Pi-Solsel, ein Dorf mit koptischer Überlieferung''] in: ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo'', (MDAIK) vol. 6, 1936, pp. 169–175 (in German).</ref>

From the medieval period, there is one known example of [[Tarsh|''tarsh''-printed]] Coptic. The fragmentary [[amulet]] A.Ch. 12.145, now in the [[Austrian National Library]], contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text.{{sfnp|Schaefer|2006|p=50}}

=== Modern revitalisation attempts ===

In the early 20th century, some Copts tried to revive the Coptic language, but they were unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jorient/58/2/58_184/_article/-char/en|doi=10.5356/jorient.58.2_184|title=Pharaonism and the Revival of the Coptic Language among Early Twentieth-Century Coptic Christians|year=2016|last1=Miyokawa|first1=Hiroko|journal=Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan|volume=58|issue=2|pages=184–195|doi-access=free|access-date=2021-06-30|archive-date=2021-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711064730/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jorient/58/2/58_184/_article/-char/en|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the second half of the 20th century, [[Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria]] started a national Church-sponsored movement to [[Language revitalization|revive]] Coptic. Several works of grammar were published, including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of the field of [[Egyptology]] and the inauguration of the [[Institute of Coptic Studies]] further contributed to the renaissance. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken, and have attracted the interest of [[Copts]] and linguists in and outside of Egypt.{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}}