Introduction
Eyptian is an extinct language that was spoken in the Nile valley of Egypt. It constitutes a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, along with Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and Semitic branches. On the basis of written texts, the history of Egyptian is usually divided into five periods which are presented below. All these language periods refer to the written language, which often differed greatly from the spoken dialects.

• Old Egyptian (from before 3000 to about 2200 BC);
• Middle Egyptian (from about 2200 to about600 BC);
• Late Egyptian (from about 1550 to about 700 BC);
• Demotic (from about 700 BC to about 400 AD);
• Coptic (from about the 2nd century AD until at least the 17th century).

Status
Although extinct, Coptic is still used as a liturgical language by the Arabic-speaking Coptic Orthodox Christians. The word Copt is derived from Arabic quft "Egyptian."

It is estimated that there are more than 40 million Coptic Orthodox Christians in the world found primarily in Egypt (about 10 million), Ethiopia (about 30 million), and Eritrea (about 2 million). There are also significant numbers of Coptic Christians in Sudan, Israel, and in emigré communities throughout the world.

Coptic was an official language of Egypt until around the 13th century AD, when it was replaced by Arabic. At present, Coptic Christians speak Arabic, but use Coptic in their religious ceremonies.

Writing
The Coptic alphabet was introduced in the 3rd century B.C. after the Greek conquest of Egypt and the subsequent spread of Christianity. It is logical, therefore, that it is based on the Greek alphabet to which extra symbols were added to represent sounds not found in Greek. The extra symbols were taken from the Demotic (i.e., cursive and abbreviated) form of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Click here for an interactive lesson on hieroglyphics.

Coptic alphabet (from Ancient Scripts)

Click here to see your name in hieroglyphs, the way an Egyptian scribe might have written it.