who is a copt? what is coptic language?

What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt?

A short history of ancient Egyptian language

Megan Sauter  •  08/15/2016

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in 2015.—Ed.

 codex_glazier

WHAT IS COPTIC, AND WHO WERE THE COPTS?
Dated to the fourth–fifth century C.E., the Codex Grazier is written in the Coptic language—the fifth and final stage of ancient Egyptian language—and contains part of the Book of Acts (Acts 1:1–15:3).

What is Coptic, and who were the Copts in ancient Egypt?

The Coptic language is the final stage of ancient Egyptian language. Even though it looks very different from texts written in Old Egyptian using hieroglyphs, the two are related. In his article “Coptic—Egypt’s Christian Language” in the November/December 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Leo Depuydt gives a short history of the development of ancient Egyptian language and shows where the Coptic language fits in that timeline, as well as answering the question: Who were the Copts.

What Is Coptic?

The Coptic language developed around 300 C.E. in Egypt. It is Egyptian language written using the Greek alphabet, as well as a couple of Demotic signs. This script was much easier to learn than the earlier writing systems used in ancient Egypt: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic scripts.

Coptic was the lingua franca of Egypt when Egypt was predominantly Christian. Many assume that the Coptic language was developed primarily to spread Christianity, but Depuydt disagrees. He supports the great Belgian Coptologist Louis Théophile Lefort’s theory that the Coptic language was created by another group—the Jews.

for the rest of the article, pls go to the url below:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/what-is-coptic-and-who-were-the-copts-in-ancient-egypt/

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