A recent study examines how centuries of contact between Greek and Egypt’s native language shaped Coptic, the final stage of ancient Egyptian, influencing both its structure and vocabulary.
In a study published in the Journal of Greek Linguistics, Sonja Dahlgren of the University of Helsinki explores how Greek influence on Egyptian-Coptic transformed everyday language, religious texts, and administrative documents.
Dahlgren situates her analysis within Egypt’s extraordinarily long written tradition—the oldest in the world. She notes that the Egyptian language evolved through successive phases of contact, beginning with Semitic tongues and continuing under centuries of Greek dominance.
This interaction produced what she describes as a bilingual continuum: at one end, pure Greek; at the other, pure Egyptian. Most speakers, however, occupied a middle ground where the two languages blended.
Her research demonstrates that Greek vocabulary was introduced into Coptic in systematic ways. Adjectives led the shift. Because Coptic lacked a direct equivalent, translators of the Greek Bible imported these forms wholesale. Over time, they spread from scripture into native literature, indicating that they had become part of everyday language.
Regional variation in Greek verb integration and the influence on Egyptian-Coptic
Greek verbs followed, though their adoption differed across regions. Dahlgren explains that the Sahidic dialect incorporated Greek verbs directly into Coptic sentences without using auxiliaries, whereas the Bohairic and Lycopolitan dialects employed a light-verb construction with the Coptic er- (“to do”) to accommodate them.
Sound changes, Dahlgren notes, eroded the endings of these borrowed verbs, at times making an infinitive sound like an imperative. She argues that such variations stemmed from a single original form gradually worn down over time, rather than from multiple independent borrowings.
The study also draws attention to the Fayum region, one of the most bilingual areas in Roman Egypt. Late Coptic letters from the area feature greetings derived from Greek, such as “peace be with you,” and employ shortened hybrid verbs like er-deki (“to receive”).
According to Dahlgren, these forms remind papyrologists that unconventional spellings should not be dismissed as errors but recognized as evidence of living, evolving speech.
Coptic sound patterns shaped Greek usage
Dahlgren also explores how Greek sounds unfamiliar to Egyptian speakers were adapted to Coptic phonological patterns.
Final vowels frequently shifted to i, and voiced and voiceless stops alternated in unpredictable ways. She observes that similar patterns appear in later Arabic loanwords, demonstrating how Coptic phonology shaped the Greek forms used in Egypt.
Her study advocates for closer collaboration between Egyptologists and contact linguists, emphasizing that Egyptian-Coptic provides a rare glimpse into how two major ancient languages interacted and evolved together.
