This research paper “The Coptic Language and the Egyptian Colloquial” discusses the nature of the linguistic and historical intermingling between the Coptic language (the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language) and the Egyptian colloquial Arabic.
The paper focuses on several main axes to prove the presence of Coptic in the tongue of Egyptians today, namely:
The linguistic conclusion: the conclusion that the Egyptian colloquial carries in its structure, its grammar, and its vocabulary the spirit of the Coptic language, to the degree that the Egyptian “speaks Coptic in Arabic and understands Arabic in Coptic.”
Defining the Coptic language: clarifying that it is the last station in the development of the ancient Egyptian language, and its transition to liturgical and daily use before its general decline in favor of Arabic after the Islamic conquest.
The use of Coptic grammar rules in the colloquial: observing the grammatical and syntactic influences that moved from ancient Egyptian to the colloquial dialect, such as the manner of negation (the construction ma + verb + sh), the non-distinction between masculine and feminine in some nouns and particles (such as di, da, dula), and the word order of the sentence at times.
Words and vocabulary of Coptic origin: presenting examples of hundreds of colloquial words used in daily life that go back to Coptic origins (such as: tuba (brick), banura, nunu, timsah (crocodile), in addition to words and phrases such as “hawwas” and ”mahyis”).
Keywords: the Coptic language, the Egyptian colloquial, the Semitic and Hamitic languages, linguistic intermingling, grammatical rules, colloquial words, historical origins, linguistic identity, the Islamic conquest of Egypt.
Introduction
The intermingling of the two languages, Coptic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic, is a natural matter, and the borrowing of the new from the old is a fundamental pillar of the development of every language, whatever this language or that may be. There is no doubt that the modern Egyptian colloquial carries many Coptic words and rules. In this short study we will work at defining the Coptic language and presenting a set of Coptic rules and words that entered and settled in the Egyptian colloquial today, without affecting the emergence of another new language, and without considering one of the two languages to be the sister or daughter of the other, because each language came from a source different from the other.
The Coptic Language
Dr. Ali defines the Coptic language [1]
“It is the ancient Egyptian language in its last stages, or more precisely, it is the last phase of the Egyptian colloquial dialect in the ancient Egyptian language, which the inhabitants of the Nile Valley spoke for thousands of years. And it appears from tracing the traces of the dialect that it became a recognized language, used in religious life as in public life, at the beginning of the third century after the birth of Christ, peace be upon him, and its use continued until the seventeenth century, when it died out from general use and became restricted to the religious rites in the churches, because of the dominance of the Arabic language which came with the Islamic conquest.”
The use of Coptic grammar rules in the colloquial dialect
The stage in which Arabic entered Egypt and began to become an official language in the country made people work at merging the two languages, and it necessarily produced an understandable language without creating a third language in the literal sense. Thus Issam Statti sees: “that the Egyptians were able to mix the Arabic language and Coptic, ‘the Egyptian language in its last phases,’ in order to bring out a new language that combines the rules of the Coptic language and some of its words with Arabic and its pronunciation and words”[2]
And he cites many examples, for the Egyptian does not distinguish between feminine and masculine in the plural, which parallels the ancient Egyptian language. The Egyptian colloquial knows: di, da, and dula, which corresponds to the ancient Egyptian language. And he also explains that “ma ‘rafsh” in the Egyptian colloquial, when a person wishes to negate, places the verb between the two particles “ma” and “sh” so that the construction of the sentence becomes ma + verb + sh, such as “ma akaltsh, ma shiribtsh,” and this manner corresponds completely and agrees with the construction of negation in the ancient Egyptian language[3].
And the grammatical ordering of words often follows the Coptic language: (subject + verb + object), contrary to the classical Arabic rules: (verb + subject + object).
The use of Coptic vocabulary
Many linguistic studies affirm that hundreds of Egyptian colloquial words are of Coptic origin, and some of them go back to older stages, and these words are not limited to a single field but include the agricultural field, foods, feelings, and even cursing and insults, many of them — these words that are repeated on the tongues of Egyptians, which some suppose to be Egyptian Arabic colloquial, having clear Coptic origins, such as:
| The Coptic word | Its Coptic origin | Its meaning | The word in the colloquial |
| tuba | τωΒε | small stone | tuba (brick) |
| banuri | ΠεΝοΥΡι | earthenware vessel | banura |
| shusha | σωσε | cough | kuh |
| nunu | Νογνογ | nursing infant | nunu |
| timsah | τεΜςαζ | amphibious animal | timsah (crocodile) |
And there are many phrases used in the colloquial language:
Hawwas[4]: “hawwas, be quiet, I do not want to hear a single word,” and the word hawwas is Coptic ζως, meaning to shut and close, and the intended meaning is: shut your mouth. And from the word came “hawis,” which is an iron gate that closes over a water intake.
Mahyis[5]: “this boy is mayyis and loves to yahmis,” and the word mahyis is a Coptic word Μεζιως mahyus, meaning filled with haste, and it is composed of Μεζ meh, meaning filled, and ιως, meaning haste and hurry, so the meaning of the phrase becomes: filled with haste, or with a love of jumping, and as we say in the colloquial: he loves play and is not one for work. And from the word other words were derived: mahyasa and mahyas, meaning one who loves amusement (mahyasa).
Conclusion
The contemporary man today cannot understand the Egyptian colloquial language (and I mean here the understanding of the roots and sources) without realizing the historical development of the language in Egypt up to the Coptic language, and then striving to understand that temporal stage in which colloquial Arabic was intermingled with Coptic. For the Coptic language has indeed disappeared, but it did not disappear by force; it is still strongly present in the words, the rules, and the pronunciation of Arabic. And it is striking in this that the Egyptian today speaks Coptic in Arabic and understands Arabic in Coptic, and this is considered one of the rarest phenomena among peoples, and this is what requires deeper studies in order to understand and realize one of the most beautiful characteristics, whereby you are able to combine two languages together in a single dialect.
References
[1] Ali Fahmi Khushaym, Coptic Arabic, “a comparative study between two close sister languages” (Cairo, Arab Civilization, 2003), p. 14
[2] “For these reasons we speak the Coptic language,” Bab Misr website, 26/5/2016, accessed on 28/6/2025, available at http://www.babmsr.com
[3] The previous reference.
[4] Sameh Makar, The Origin of Colloquial Words from the Ancient Egyptian Language (Cairo, the Egyptian General Authority, 2004), 197
[5] The previous reference, 196