Coptic alphabet

All you want to know about 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 in Unicode.
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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. 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
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 the Demotic. During the first two centuries of the Christian 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 AD 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.) The alphabet is still used 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.

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.

Coptic
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 ⳥ ⳦ ⳧ ⳨ ⳩ ⳪          
U+2CFx                   ⳹ ⳺ ⳻ ⳼ ⳽ ⳾ ⳿

Alphabet table

image majuscule minuscule numeric value name translit. (IPA)
Image:Copte a.png Ⲁ ⲁ 1 alpʰa a ([ɑ, ʕ, ʔ])
Image:Copte b.png Ⲃ ⲃ 2 bēta b, v, w
Image:Copte g.png Ⲅ ⲅ 3 gamma g (/k/, /g, ŋ, ɣ/)
Image:Copte d.png Ⲇ ⲇ 4 dalda d (/d, ð/)
Image:Copte e.png Ⲉ ⲉ 5 ei e
Image:Copte soou.png Ⲋ ⲋ 6 sou –
Image:Coptic_Zeta-min.svg Ⲍ ⲍ 7 zēta z (/s/, /z/)
Image:Copte ee.png Ⲏ ⲏ 8 ēta ē (/eː, ɛː, i/)
Image:Copte th.png Ⲑ ⲑ 9 tʰēta tʰ (/tʰ, θ/)
Image:Coptic Iota-min.svg Ⲓ ⲓ 10 iōta i (/i, j/)
Image:Copte k.png Ⲕ ⲕ 20 kappa k, q
Image:Copte l.png Ⲗ ⲗ 30 laula l
Image:Copte m.png Ⲙ ⲙ 40 mē m
Image:Copte n.png Ⲛ ⲛ 50 nē n
Image:Coptic Kxi-min.svg Ⲝ ⲝ 60 kˢi kˢ (/ks/)
Image:Copte o.png Ⲟ ⲟ 70 ou o
Image:Copte p.png Ⲡ ⲡ 80 pi p, b
Image:Copte r.png Ⲣ ⲣ 100 rō r
Image:Copte s.png Ⲥ ⲥ 200 sēmma s
Image:Copte t.png Ⲧ ⲧ 300 tau t (/t, d/)
Image:Copte u.png Ⲩ ⲩ 400 he u (/u, w, i, v/)
Image:Copte ph.png Ⲫ ⲫ 500 pʰi pʰ (/pʰ, f/)
Image:Copte kh.png Ⲭ ⲭ 600 kʰi kʰ (/kʰ, χ, ʃ/)
Image:Copte ps.png Ⲯ ⲯ 700 pˢi pˢ (/ps/)
Image:Copte oo.png Ⲱ ⲱ 800 ō ō (/oː/)
Image:Copte sh.png Ϣ ϣ šai š (/ʃ/)
Image:Copte f.png Ϥ ϥ 90 fai f
Image:Copte x.png Ϧ ϧ ḫai ḫ (/x/)
Image:Copte h.png Ϩ ϩ hori h, ḥ
Image:Copte dj.png Ϫ ϫ ḏanḏia ḏ (/ʤ, g, ɟ/)
Image:Coptic Cima-min.svg Ϭ ϭ čima č (/q, ʧ, gʲ, ʃ/)
Image:Copte ti.png Ϯ ϯ ti ti (/ti, c/)
Image:Copte r barre.png Ⳁ ⳁ 900 pˢis ənše

Letters derived from the demotic:

hieroglyph   demotic   coptic
SA
→ Image:demotique sh.png → Ϣ š
f
→ Image:demotique f.png → Ϥ f
M12
→ Image:demotique kh.png → Ϧ ḫ
F18
Y1
→ Image:demotique h.png → Ϩ h
U29
→ Image:demotique j.png → Ϫ ḏ
k
→ Image:demotique tsh.png → Ϭ č
D37
t
→ Image:demotique ti.png → Ϯ ti

See also

References

  • Quaegebeur, Jan. 1982. "De la préhistoire de l'écriture copte." Orientalia lovaniensia analecta 13:125–136.
  • 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. 287–290.
  • Kasser, Rodolphe. 1991. "Alphabet in Coptic, Greek". In The Coptic Encyclopedia, edited by Aziz S. Atiya. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Volume 8. 30–32.
  • Kasser, Rodolphe. 1991. "Alphabets, Coptic". In The Coptic Encyclopedia, edited by Aziz S. Atiya. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Volume 8. 32–41.
  • Kasser, Rodolphe. 1991. "Alphabets, Old Coptic". In The Coptic Encyclopedia, edited by Aziz S. Atiya. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Volume 8. 41–45.

External links

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