Coptic alphabet

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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

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.


Coptic Writing System

The Coptic alphabet was very different from previous writing systems of Egypt. Whereas previous writing systems used by Egyptians relied on pictographs, images of the ideas or things represented, Coptic was an alphabetic system. This made Coptic the first writing system of Egypt that distinguished vowels from other parts of the writing system. However, not all syllables in Coptic needed a vowel. Each syllable without a vowel contained a sonant, or a sound that is capable of representing a vowel. These syllables were written in Coptic with a supralinear stroke, “ ̅”, above the letters. In addition to the supralinear stroke, Coptic used some other symbols beyond letters. The diaresis was used at the beginning of some syllables, an apostrophe was used to separate words and a circumflex to show that a vowel represents an independent syllable.[1]
The majority of the Coptic alphabet is based off of the Greek alphabet, with 24 letters of Greek origin. Most of these letters borrowed from Greek are nearly exact copies of their Greek counterparts with the exception of alpha and sigma which are written significantly differently in the Greek and Coptic writing systems. Beyond the Greek letters, other letters were needed to write sounds in Coptic that are not part of the Greek language. To represent these sounds, Coptic borrowed letters from Demotic (Egyptian). The number of Demotic symbols used in Coptic is dependent on the dialect and in the standardize dialect six Demotic signs are used. [2]. Since coptic is based largely of off Greek, its pronunciation is known. This relationship makes Coptic very important in the study of Egyptian linguistics. [3]


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

Alphabet table

image maj. image min. majuscule minuscule numeric value name translit. (IPA)
Image:CopteAmaj.png Image:CopteAmin.png Ⲁ ⲁ 1 alpʰa a ([ɑ, ʕ, ʔ])
Image:CopteBmaj.png Image:CopteBmin.png Ⲃ ⲃ 2 bēta b, v, w
Image:CopteCmaj.png Image:CopteCmin.png Ⲅ ⲅ 3 gamma g (/k/, /g, ŋ, ɣ/)
Image:CopteDmaj.png Image:CopteDmin.png Ⲇ ⲇ 4 dalda d (/d, ð/)
Image:CopteEmaj.png Image:CopteEmin.png Ⲉ ⲉ 5 ei e
Image:Copte6.png Image:Copte6.png Ⲋ ⲋ 6 sou –
Image:CopteZmaj.png Image:CopteZmin.png Ⲍ ⲍ 7 zēta z (/s/, /z/)
Image:CopteYmaj.png Image:CopteYmin.png Ⲏ ⲏ 8 ēta ē (/eː, ɛː, i/)
Image:CopteTHmaj.png Image:CopteTHmin.png Ⲑ ⲑ 9 tʰēta tʰ (/tʰ, θ/)
Image:CopteImaj.png Image:CopteImin.png Ⲓ ⲓ 10 iōta i (/i, j/)
Image:CopteKmaj.png Image:CopteKmin.png Ⲕ ⲕ 20 kappa k, q
Image:CopteLmaj.png Image:CopteLmin.png Ⲗ ⲗ 30 laula l
Image:CopteMmaj.png Image:CopteMmin.png Ⲙ ⲙ 40 mē m
Image:CopteNmaj.png Image:CopteNmin.png Ⲛ ⲛ 50 nē n
Image:CopteKSmaj.png Image:CopteKSmin.png Ⲝ ⲝ 60 kˢi kˢ (/ks/)
Image:CopteOmaj.png Image:CopteOmin.png Ⲟ ⲟ 70 ou o
Image:CoptePmaj.png Image:CoptePmin.png Ⲡ ⲡ 80 pi p, b
Image:CopteRmaj.png Image:CopteRmin.png Ⲣ ⲣ 100 rō r
Image:CopteCCmaj.png Image:CopteCCmin.png Ⲥ ⲥ 200 sēmma s
Image:CopteTmaj.png Image:CopteTmin.png Ⲧ ⲧ 300 tau t (/t, d/)
Image:CopteUmaj.png Image:CopteUmin.png Ⲩ ⲩ 400 he u (/u, w, i, v/)
Image:CopteVmaj.png Image:CopteVmin.png Ⲫ ⲫ 500 pʰi pʰ (/pʰ, f/)
Image:CopteXmaj.png Image:CopteXmin.png Ⲭ ⲭ 600 kʰi kʰ (/kʰ, χ, ʃ/)
Image:CoptePSmaj.png Image:CoptePSmin.png Ⲯ ⲯ 700 pˢi pˢ (/ps/)
Image:CopteWmaj.png Image:CopteWmin.png Ⲱ ⲱ 800 ō ō (/oː/)
Image:CopteSmaj.png Image:CopteSmin.png Ϣ ϣ šai š (/ʃ/)
Image:CopteFmaj.png Image:CopteFmin.png Ϥ ϥ 90 fai f
Image:CopteKHmaj.png Image:CopteKHmin.png Ϧ ϧ ḫai ḫ (/x/)
Image:CopteHmaj.png Image:CopteHmin.png Ϩ ϩ hori h, ḥ
Image:CopteJmaj.png Image:CopteJmin.png Ϫ ϫ ḏanḏia ḏ (/ʤ, g, ɟ/)
Image:CopteTSHmaj.png Image:CopteTSHmin.png Ϭ ϭ čima č (/q, ʧ, gʲ, ʃ/)
Image:CopteTImaj.png Image:CopteTImin.png Ϯ ϯ ti ti (/ti, c/)
Image:Copte r barre.png 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

  1. ^ *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.
  2. ^ *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. 288.
  3. ^ *CampBell, George L. "Coptic." Compendium of the World's Writing Systems. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Biddles LTD, 1991. 415.

External links

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Coptic script