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Addendum: Greek v Egyptian language in late antique Egypt! The demise of Greek and the ascendancy of the "mother tongue"!Reader comment on item: Dhimmis No More Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jan 18, 2018 at 10:30 For the readers: The Egyptian language written by using Greek letters and adding 6 consonants that do not exist in Greek alphabet is what our dear Gato calls the Coptic language (sic) when it should be called the Egyptian language, written by using the Coptic script By the 7th century and on the eve of the Arab invasion the Egyptian language (written by using the Coptic script) already replaced the Greek language as the medium of writing of personal letters, contracts and other documents And indeed the Greek language was dead as a spoken language as well as language of letters and documents by the 9th century and the Egyptian language survived, The reason? it was the mother tongue of most Egyptians in the late antique period and for several hundred years following the Arab invasion in 642CE See more possible reasons below And for readers interested in viewing letters and documents from late antique Egypt written by using the Egyptian language (Coptic script) This is from the MetMuseum in NYC https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/474684 The Egyptian language was alive and well back then because it was the mother tongue of Egyptians Or could it be because using Greek alphabet and therefore vowels that did not exist in the Egyptian language prior to the Coptic script made matters easy in writing and reading a document v same document written by using the pristine Demotic script? Or could it be because the Egyptian language was written in many dialects (eg: Bohairic, Sahidic etc..) which allowed less or uneducated Egyptians to understand a let us say a letter) v the Greek Koine? And yes the Sahidic Coptic script was used in writing the whole Nag Hammadi Library including the "Gospel of Thomas" So much for the "superior" Greek language! As for Classical Arabic Why did Egyptians reshape it in their own image and made it al-Lugha al-'Amiayya (Egyptian Arabic)? Any guesses our dear Gato? So much for the language of Allah! See? You need to read Carl Becker first Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". Reader comments (80) on this item
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