Coptic script

The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language, the most recent development of Egyptian. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the uncial Greek alphabet, augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic. It was the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian language. There are several Coptic alphabets, as the script varies greatly among the various dialects and eras of the Coptic language.

History

ⲁⲃⲅⲇ

Coptic Alphabet (including soou)

Template:Copts Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists The Coptic script has a long history going back to the Ptolemaic Kingdom, when the Greek alphabet was used to transcribe 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 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 variant of the Coptic script, with additional characters borrowed from the Greek and Meroitic scripts.

Form

The Coptic script was the first Egyptian writing system to indicate vowels, making Coptic documents invaluable for the interpretation of earlier Egyptian texts. Some Egyptian syllables had sonorants but no vowels; in Sahidic, these were written in Coptic with a line above the entire syllable. Various scribal schools made limited use of diacritics: some used an apostrophe as a word divider and to mark clitics, a function of determinatives in logographic Egyptian; others used diereses over ⲓ and ⲩ to show that these started a new syllable, others a circumflex over any vowel for the same purpose.

The Coptic script's glyphs are largely based on the Greek alphabet, another help in interpreting older Egyptian texts, with 24 letters of Greek origin; 6 or 7 more were retained from Demotic, depending on the dialect (6 in Sahidic, another each in Bohairic and Akhmimic). In addition to the alphabetic letters, the letter ϯ stood for the syllable or .

As the Coptic script is simply a typeface of the Greek alphabet, with a few added letters, it can be used to write Greek without any transliteration schemes. Latin equivalents would include the Icelandic alphabet (which likewise has added letters), or the Fraktur alphabet (which has distinctive forms). While initially unified with the Greek alphabet by Unicode, a proposal was later accepted to separate it, with the proposal noting that Coptic is never written using modern Greek letter-forms (unlike German, which may be written with Fraktur or Roman Antiqua letter-forms), and that the Coptic letter-forms have closer mutual legibility with the Greek-based letters incorporated into the separately encoded Cyrillic alphabet than with the forms used in modern Greek. Because Coptic lowercases are usually small-caps forms of the capitals, a Greek would have little trouble reading Coptic letters, but Copts would struggle more with many of the Greek letters.

Letters

These are the letters that are used for writing the Coptic language. Coptic did not originally have case distinctions—they are a modern convention, as is the case with other classical languages like Latin.

Uppercase (image)	Lowercase (image)	Uppercase (unicode)	Lowercase (unicode)	Numeric value	Greek equiv.	Latin translit.	Sahidic pron.	Bohairic pron.	Late Coptic pron.	Greco-Bohairic pron.
File:Coptic Alpha-maj.svg	File:Coptic Alpha-min.svg	Ⲁ	ⲁ	1	Α, α	A, a	Template:IPAslink		Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Beta-maj.svg	File:Coptic Beta-min.svg	Ⲃ	ⲃ	2	Β, β	B, b	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink (final Template:IPAblink)	Template:IPAslink (final Template:IPAblink)	Template:IPAslink, (Template:IPAslink often before a consonant or in a name)
File:Coptic Gamma-maj.svg	File:Coptic Gamma-min.svg	Ⲅ	ⲅ	3	Γ, γ	G, g	Template:IPAslink (marked Greek words)	—	Template:IPAslink, ( Template:IPAslink before ⲁ, ⲟ, or ⲱ)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (before Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink), Template:IPAslink (before Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink)
File:Coptic Dalda-maj.svg	File:Coptic Dalda-min.svg	Ⲇ	ⲇ	4	Δ, δ	D, d	Template:IPAslink (marked Greek words)	—	Template:IPAslink (marked Greek words)	Template:IPAslink, (Template:IPAslink in a name)
File:Coptic Ei-maj.svg	File:Coptic Ei-min.svg	Ⲉ	ⲉ	5	Ε, ε	E, e	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲉⲓ = Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲓⲉ = Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲓⲉ = Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Sou.svg	File:Coptic Sou.svg	Ⲋ	ⲋ	6	ϛ Ϛ, ϛ* (Template:GrGl, Template:GrGl)	(none)	(none)
File:Coptic Zeta-maj.svg	File:Coptic Zeta-min.svg	Ⲍ	ⲍ	7	Ζ, ζ	Z, z	Template:IPAslink (marked Greek words)	—	Template:IPAslink (marked Greek words)	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Eta-maj.svg	File:Coptic Eta-min.svg	Ⲏ	ⲏ	8	Η, η	Ē ē	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Theta-maj.svg	File:Coptic Theta-min.svg	Ⲑ	ⲑ	9	Θ, θ	Th, th	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Iota-maj.svg	File:Coptic Iota-min.svg	Ⲓ	ⲓ	10	Ι, ι	I, i / J, j	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲓⲉ = Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲓⲉ = Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (before vowels), Template:IPAslink (after vowels to form diphthongs)
File:Coptic Kappa-maj.svg	File:Coptic Kappa-min.svg	Ⲕ	ⲕ	20	Κ, κ	C, c	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Laula-maj.svg	File:Coptic Laula-min.svg	Ⲗ	ⲗ	30	Λ, λ	L, l	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Me-maj.svg	File:Coptic Me-min.svg	Ⲙ	ⲙ	40	Μ, μ	M, m	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Ne-maj.svg	File:Coptic Ne-min.svg	Ⲛ	ⲛ	50	Ν, ν	N, n	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Kxi-maj.svg	File:Coptic Kxi-min.svg	Ⲝ	ⲝ	60	Ξ, ξ	X, x			Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link (only in Greek loanwords)	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link, Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link (usually following a consonant, or sometimes when starting a word)
File:Coptic Ou-maj.svg	File:Coptic Ou-min.svg	Ⲟ	ⲟ	70	Ο, ο	O, o	Template:IPAslink (ⲟⲩ = Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink)		Template:IPAslink (ⲟⲩ = Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink (ⲟⲩ = Template:IPAslink)
File:Coptic Pi-maj.svg	File:Coptic Pi-min.svg	Ⲡ	ⲡ	80	Π, π	P, p	Template:IPAslink		Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Ro-maj.svg	File:Coptic Ro-min.svg	Ⲣ	ⲣ	100	Ρ, ρ	R, r	Template:IPAslink~Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Semma-maj.svg	File:Coptic Semma-min.svg	Ⲥ	ⲥ	200	Σ, σ, ς	S, s	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Tau-maj.svg	File:Coptic Tau-min.svg	Ⲧ	ⲧ	300	Τ, τ	T, t	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink (final Template:IPAblink)	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic He-maj.svg	File:Coptic He-min.svg	Ⲩ	ⲩ	400	Υ, υ	U, u	Template:IPAslink (ⲟⲩ = Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink)		Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (ⲟⲩ = Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink)	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (between "ⲟ" and another vowel except "ⲱ"), Template:IPAslink (after Template:IPAslink (ⲁ or Template:IPAslink (ⲉ)), Template:IPAslink (digraph "ⲟⲩ")
File:Coptic Phi-maj.svg	File:Coptic Phi-min.svg	Ⲫ	ⲫ	500	Φ, φ	Ph, ph	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink~Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Khi-maj.svg	File:Coptic Khi-min.svg	Ⲭ	ⲭ	600	Χ, χ	Ch, ch	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink (if the word is Coptic in origin), Template:IPAslink (if the word is Greek in origin), Template:IPAslink (if the word is Greek in origin but before Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink)
File:Coptic Pxi-maj.svg	File:Coptic Pxi-min.svg	Ⲯ	ⲯ	700	Ψ, ψ	Ps, ps			Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link (only in Greek loanwords)	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link, Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link (usually following a consonant)
File:Coptic O-maj.svg	File:Coptic O-min.svg	Ⲱ	ⲱ	800	Ω, ω	Ō, ō	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Sai-maj.svg	File:Coptic Sai-min.svg	Ϣ	ϣ	—	(none)	Ŝ, ŝ / Sh, sh	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Fai-maj.svg	File:Coptic Fai-min.svg	Ϥ	ϥ	90	ϙ (numerical value)	F, f	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Hai-maj.svg	File:Coptic Hai-min.svg	Ϧ (Ⳉ)	ϧ (ⳉ)	—	(none)	Ĥ, ĥ / Ch, ch	NA	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Hori-maj.svg	File:Coptic Hori-min.svg	Ϩ	ϩ	—	(none)	H, h	Template:IPAslink
File:Coptic Dandia-maj.svg	File:Coptic Dandia-min.svg	Ϫ	ϫ	—	(none)	Ĝ, ĝ / Dj, dj	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink (before Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink)
File:Coptic Cima-maj.svg	File:Coptic Cima-min.svg	Ϭ	ϭ	—	(none)	Ĉ, ĉ / Tj, tj	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink, Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link (usually following a consonant)
File:Coptic Ti-maj.svg	File:Coptic Ti-min.svg	Ϯ	ϯ	—	Τι, τι	Ti, ti	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPA linki	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link
File:Coptic Sampi.svg	File:Coptic Sampi.svg	Ⳁ	ⳁ	900	Ϡ,ϡ (numerical value)	—	—	—	—	—

Letters derived from Demotic

In Old Coptic, there were a large number of Demotic Egyptian characters, including some logograms. This was reduced to seven such characters, used for sounds not covered by the Greek alphabet (plus their modern lowercase forms):

Hieroglyph		Hieratic		Demotic		Coptic	Translit.	Late Coptic pron.
<hiero>SA\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic M8 Prisse - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-š.png	→	Ϣ	š	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>f\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic I9 Takelothis - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-f.png	→	Ϥ	f	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>M12\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic M12 Prisse - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-ẖ.png	→	Ϧ	x	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>F18\:Y1\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic Y1-ABK Takelothis - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-ḥ-2.png	→	Ϩ	h	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>U29\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic U28 Golen - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-ḏ-2.png	→	Ϫ	j	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>k\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic V31A Elephantine - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-k.png	→	Ϭ	c	Template:IPAslink
<hiero>D37\:t\</hiero>	→	File:Hieratic D37 PRylands 2 - Möller.png	→	File:Demotic-character-ḏj.png	→	Ϯ	di	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link

Numerals

Coptic numerals are an alphabetic numeral system in which numbers are indicated with letters of the alphabet, such as ⲫ for 500. The numerical value of the letters is based on Greek numerals. Sometimes numerical use is distinguished from text with a continuous overline above the letters, as with Greek and Cyrillic numerals.

Unicode

In Unicode, most Coptic letters formerly shared codepoints with similar Greek letters, but a disunification was accepted for version 4.1, which appeared in 2005. The new Coptic block is U+2C80 to U+2CFF. Most fonts contained in mainstream operating systems use a distinctive Byzantine style for this block. The Greek block includes seven Coptic letters (U+03E2–U+03EF highlighted below) derived from Demotic, and these need to be included in any complete implementation of Coptic.

Greek and Coptic[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+037x

Ͱ

ͱ

Ͳ

ͳ

ʹ

͵

Ͷ

ͷ

ͺ

ͻ

ͼ

ͽ

;

Ϳ

U+038x

΄

΅

Ά

·

Έ

Ή

Ί

Ό

Ύ

Ώ

U+039x

ΐ

Α

Β

Γ

Δ

Ε

Ζ

Η

Θ

Ι

Κ

Λ

Μ

Ν

Ξ

Ο

U+03Ax

Π

Ρ

Σ

Τ

Υ

Φ

Χ

Ψ

Ω

Ϊ

Ϋ

ά

έ

ή

ί

U+03Bx

ΰ

α

β

γ

δ

ε

ζ

η

θ

ι

κ

λ

μ

ν

ξ

ο

U+03Cx

π

ρ

ς

σ

τ

υ

φ

χ

ψ

ω

ϊ

ϋ

ό

ύ

ώ

Ϗ

U+03Dx

ϐ

ϑ

ϒ

ϓ

ϔ

ϕ

ϖ

ϗ

Ϙ

ϙ

Ϛ

ϛ

Ϝ

ϝ

Ϟ

ϟ

U+03Ex

Ϡ

ϡ

Ϣ

ϣ

Ϥ

ϥ

Ϧ

ϧ

Ϩ

ϩ

Ϫ

ϫ

Ϭ

ϭ

Ϯ

ϯ

U+03Fx

ϰ

ϱ

ϲ

ϳ

ϴ

ϵ

϶

Ϸ

ϸ

Ϲ

Ϻ

ϻ

ϼ

Ͻ

Ͼ

Ͽ

Notes 1.^ Template:Unicode version 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Coptic[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code 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

⳥

⳦

⳧

⳨

⳩

⳪

Ⳬ

ⳬ

Ⳮ

ⳮ

⳯

U+2CFx

⳰

⳱

Ⳳ

ⳳ

⳹

⳺

⳻

⳼

⳽

⳾

⳿

Notes 1. ^ Template:Unicode version 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Diacritics and punctuation

These are also included in the Unicode specification.

Punctuation

• Latin alphabet punctuation (comma, period, question mark, semicolon, colon, hyphen) uses the regular Unicode codepoints for punctuation
• Dicolon: standard colon U+003A
• Middle dot: U+00B7
• En dash: U+2013
• Em dash: U+2014
• Slanted double hyphen: U+2E17

Combining diacritics

These are codepoints applied after that of the character they modify.

• Combining overstroke: U+0305 (= supralinear stroke)
• Combining character-joining overstroke (from middle of one character to middle of the next): U+035E
• Combining dot under a letter: U+0323
• Combining dot over a letter: U+0307
• Combining acute accent: U+0301
• Combining grave accent: U+0300
• Combining circumflex accent (caret shaped): U+0302
• Combining circumflex (curved shape) or inverted breve above: U+0311
• Combining circumflex as wide inverted breve above joining two letters: U+0361
• Combining diaeresis: U+0308

Macrons and overlines

Coptic uses Template:Unichar to indicate syllabic consonants, for example ⲛ̄.

Coptic abbreviations use Template:Unichar to draw a continuous line across the remaining letters of an abbreviated word. It extends from the left edge of the first letter to the right edge of the last letter. For example, ⲡ̅ⲛ̅ⲁ̅, a common abbreviation for ⲡⲛⲉⲩⲙⲁ 'spirit'.

A different kind of overline uses Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, and Template:Unichar to distinguish the spelling of certain common words or to highlight proper names of divinities and heroes. For this the line begins in the middle of the first letter and continues to the middle of the last letter. A few examples: ⲣ︤ⲙ︥, ϥ︤ⲛ︦ⲧ︥, ⲡ︤ϩ︦ⲣ︦ⲃ︥.

Sometimes numerical use of letters is indicated with a continuous line above them using Template:Unichar as in ⲁ͵ⲱ̅ⲡ̅ⲏ̅ for 1,888 (where "ⲁ͵" is 1,000 and "ⲱ̅ⲡ̅ⲏ̅" is 888). Multiples of 1,000 can be indicated by a continuous double line above using Template:Unichar as in ⲁ̿ for 1,000.

See also

• Coptic pronunciation reform
• Institute of Coptic Studies

References

• Quaegebeur, Jan. 1982. "De la préhistoire de l'écriture copte." Orientalia lovaniensia analecta 13:125–136.
• 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.
• Wolfgang Kosack: Koptisches Handlexikon des Bohairischen. Koptisch – Deutsch – Arabisch. Verlag Christoph Brunner, Basel 2013, Template:ISBN.

External links

• Michael Everson's Revised proposal to add the Coptic alphabet to the BMP of the UCS
• Final Proposal to Encode Coptic Epact Numbers in ISO/IEC 1064
• Copticsounds – a resource for the study of Coptic phonology
• Phonological overview of the Coptic alphabet in comparison to classical and modern Greek.
• Coptic Unicode input
• Michael Everson's Antinoou: A standard font for Coptic supported by the International Association for Coptic Studies.
• Ifao N Copte – A professional Coptic font for researchers, students and publishers has been developed by the French institute of oriental archeology (IFAO). Unicode, Mac and Windows compatible, this free font is available through downloading from the IFAO website (direct link).
• Coptic fonts; Coptic fonts made by Laurent Bourcellier & Jonathan Perez, type designers
• ⲡⲓⲥⲁϧⲟ Template:Webarchive: Coptic font support Template:Webarchive – how to install, use and manipulate Coptic ASCII and Unicode fonts
• Download Free Coptic Fonts
• The Coptic Alphabet (omniglot.com)
• GNU FreeFont Coptic range in serif face