St Mark Coptic School

From the epistle to Corinthos/Corinthians
Ϫⲉ ⲡⲓⲥϧⲁⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛⲕⲟⲣⲓⲛⲑⲟⲥ

(27) but I bruise my body, and I make it servant: lest by any means, having proclaimed to others, I myself should be found [being] reprobate.

(ⲕ︦ⲍ︦) ⲁⲗⲗⲁ ϯⲱϥⲓ ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲥⲱⲙⲁ ⲟⲩⲟϩ ϯⲓⲣⲓ ⲙ̀ⲙⲟϥ ⲙ̀ⲃⲱⲕ ⲙⲏⲡⲱⲥ ⲉ̀ⲁⲓϩⲓⲱⲓϣ ⲛ̀ϩⲁⲛⲕⲉⲭⲱⲟⲩⲛⲓ ⲁ̀ⲛⲟⲕ ϩⲱ ⲛ̀ⲥⲉϫⲉⲙⲧ ⲉⲓⲟⲓ ⲛ̀ⲁⲇⲟⲕⲓⲙⲟⲥ

Verse referenced in coptic bible app (by Mina Makar)
Horner, The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, Oxford 1898–1905. v.3. pp. 116–227

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Coptic_version_of_the_New_Testament.html?id=YIuDkznvtsQC&utm_source=chatgpt.com

Remarks on ⲱϥⲓ Referenced in Crum/remnqymi digital form 'ⲱϥⲓ' would be to press/pressure. Figurative to discipline/bring under a restraint. Originating from greek to 'strike'

Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲙⲁⲣⲕⲟⲥ ⲡⲓⲁ̀ⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲟⲥ: ⲟⲩⲟϩ ⲡⲓⲉ̀ⲩⲁ̀ⲅⲅⲉⲗⲓⲥⲧⲏⲥ

✝️ ❤️

Blessings of St Mary Θεοτόκος

🌿✨ Glory be to God! ✨🌿

Yesterday evening at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church (Ripon, CA) during Vespers of the Holy Fast of the Virgin Mary, we joyfully presented a talk on the Coptic Language — the final stage of Ancient Egyptian and the cherished language of our Church.

We explored:
📖 The origins and evolution of Coptic
✝️ Its role in Christian Egypt and our liturgy
🗝️ How Coptic helped Champollion unlock the Rosetta Stone
🌍 Coptic words still alive in Arabic, cities, and names today

The audience praised God for preserving our heritage, and together we gave thanks for the faith of our fathers who kept this sacred tongue alive

🙏 Verse of blessing:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name." (Psalm 103:1)

May the intercessions of Our Holy Mother the Virgin Mary be with us all during her blessed fast. 🌹

Presentation link:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uCt-J1lUFZr_m6z6rKQMwKhzlPrg4VVh/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115545054483357689805&rtpof=true&sd=true

Some snapshots from last Saturday 📸✨
Come join our Coptic class and connect with the beautiful language once spoken by St. Mark. A journey into faith, history, and heritage awaits!

🧐 Do you know the Coptic letters?
📜 Coptic was the final stage of development of the ancient Egyptian language, spoken since the time of the ancient egyptians.
Its earliest written form was:
➡️ Hieroglyphics 🪷
➡️ then Hieratic ✍️
➡️ then Demotic 📜
➡️ and finally… Coptic ✝️
It is important to note that the Coptic language gradually ceased to be spoken as a daily language by the 17th century, with some scholars suggesting that the last native speakers existed until the early 18th century. God bless the Coptic Orthodox Church for preserving the Bohairic Coptic language, which is still spoken and heard in the liturgies.
🌀 Around the beginning of the 1st Millennium (3rd - 4th century AD), the Coptic script was transcribed into the Greek alphabet and had a lot of loanwords start making their way into daily spoken language as that is the nature of a transition when there is a conqueror that replaces government body, schools, courts, etc. Today we have a mix words from greek origin BUT also many words from actual middle egyptian origin (Around ~2000 BC)
✒️ The first 24 letters are taken directly from Greek.
🧮 After the 5th Greek letter, a numerical letter was added (Ϛ – So" used only for numbers).
📚 Then, 7 letters from Demotic Egyptian were added to express native Egyptian sounds and can be traced back to their heiratic/hieroglyphic origin.
💡 That’s why Coptic has 32 letters in total.
+----+-----+---------+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| # | Cpt | Name | Pronunciation | Notes (All Variants) |
+----+-----+---------+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| 1 | Ⲁ | Alpha | a | Like a in father |
| 2 | Ⲃ | Vita | v / b | Usually v, sometimes b in older texts |
| 3 | Ⲅ | Gamma | g / gh / n | Hard g, soft gh, or nasal n in some dialects|
| 4 | Ⲇ | Delta | d / dh / th | Like d in dog, or th in that |
| 5 | Ⲉ | Eey | e | Short e as in met, sometimes closer to ay |
| 6 | Ϛ | So-ou | — | Numerical only — represents number 6 |
| 7 | Ⲍ | Zeeta | z | Like z in zebra |
| 8 | Ⲏ | Eeta | ee | Long ee as in see, may merge with Yota |
| 9 | Ⲑ | Theta | th / t | th in think or soft t in some regions |
| 10 | Ⲓ | Yota | i | i in machine, sometimes short i as in bit |
| 11 | Ⲕ | Kappa | k | k in kite |
| 12 | Ⲗ | Lola | l | l in lamp |
| 13 | Ⲙ | Mey | m | m in mother |
| 14 | Ⲛ | Ney | n | n in noon |
| 15 | Ⲝ | Exi | x | x as in box (ks sound) |
| 16 | Ⲟ | O | o | o in not, sometimes long as in note |
| 17 | Ⲡ | Pe | p | p in pen |
| 18 | Ⲣ | Ro | r | Rolled or tapped r like in Spanish |
| 19 | Ⲥ | Seema | s | s in sun |
| 20 | Ⲧ | Tav | t | t in top |
| 21 | Ⲩ | Epsilon | i / ü / u | Varies: like ee, or ü as in French tu |
| 22 | Ⲫ | Phi | f | f in fun |
| 23 | Ⲭ | Key | kh / sh / ch | kh in Bach, sh in Bohairic sometimes |
| 24 | Ⲯ | Epsi | ps | ps as in lapse |
| 25 | Ⲱ | Omega | o / au / ō | Long o as in tome |
| 26 | Ϣ | Shai | sh | sh in ship |
| 27 | Ϥ | Fai | f | Same as Phi, but used in native Egyptian words |
| 28 | Ϧ | Khai | kh | Harsh kh, like Arabic "خ", loch in Scots |
| 29 | Ϩ | Hori | h | Strong, breathy h, deeper than English h |
| 30 | Ϫ | Genga | j / dj | j in judge, or dj in some dialects |
| 31 | Ϭ | Cheema | ch | ch in church |
| 32 | Ϯ | Ti | ti / di | Palatal t, like ti in nation, soft d |
+----+-----+---------+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
All of the letters are shown in the picture, organized in a table, and we should all learn how to pronounce them correctly and learn variations, but no problem in making funny noises/sounds while attempting to pronounce them 🙂
🏺 The 7 Coptic Letters that I love of Egyptian (Demotic) Origin:
# Coptic Letter 📛 Name 🔊 Sound 🗣️ Notes
1️⃣ Ϣ Shai sh Like sh in ship
2️⃣ Ϥ Fai f Like f in fish
3️⃣ Ϧ Khai kh Guttural kh like Bach or Arabic "خ"
4️⃣ Ϩ Hori h Strong breathy h, deeper than English h
5️⃣ Ϫ Genga j / dj Like j in judge
6️⃣ Ϭ Cheema ch Like ch in church
7️⃣ Ϯ Ti ti / di Soft palatalized t, almost "ti"
🎓 Let this beautiful script remind us of the deep, living heritage of Coptic Christianity and the Egyptian Church!
Please let us know which letter you love the most and consider unique to your eyes. (Mine is Ϣ)
Reference:
Book: So, you want to learn Coptic?: A guide to Bohairic Grammar (Sameh Yonan)
Reddit post with a table for the seven Demotic letter - Evolution into coptic