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Coptic language
Church language in use in the Coptic Christian church.
Coptic is the last historic branch of the Egyptian language and has elements of Greek and Semitic languages. Coptic belongs to the Egyptian branch of Hamito-Semitic languages. Coptic uses the Greek alphabet, but has added 7 letters from Demotic script, the ancient popular Egyptian script, for special sounds.
Most of the Coptic texts were translations from Greek, but there is Gnostic and Manichaean originally written in Coptic. Coptic is used in liturgical contexts and there is also some education current education using it in Egyptian schools.
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By: Tore Kjeilen
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