An Egyptian Exception?

This chapter provides an overview of the emergence of Coptic as the written form of Egyptian language. As is well known, a consequence of the Graeco-Macedonian conquest of Egypt and the establishment of the Ptolemaic Dynasty was the institution of Greek as the official language. This situation remained unchanged when Egypt came under Roman domination. Contrary to what was taking place elsewhere with other local languages in the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Egyptian language was not granted official recognition or used in official contexts during the first three centuries of its history. It remained in the shadows of private relations. Therefore, an Egyptian exception exists. The chapter then looks at the appearance of Coptic literary and documentary texts. It also considers legal texts, which had long been subject to the monopoly of Greek.