Languages of Egypt Coptic, and form a separate branch among the family of Afro-Asiatic languages. The Egyptian language is among the first written languages, and is known from hieroglyphic inscriptions preserved on monuments and sheets of papyrus. The Coptic language, the only extant descendant of Egyptian, is today the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The "Koiné" dialect of the Greek language was important in Hellenistic Alexandria, and was used in the philosophy and science of that culture, and was also studied by later Arabic scholars. Languages of Egypt There are a number of languages spoken in Egypt, but Egyptian Arabic or
Coptic language Coptic language Coptic, or Coptic Egyptian (Bohairic: "ti.met.rem.ən.kēmi" and Sahidic: "t.mənt.rəm.ən.kēme"), is the latest stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century as an official language. Egyptian began to be written in the Coptic alphabet, an adaptation of the Greek alphabet with the addition of six or seven signs from Demotic to represent Egyptian sounds the Greek language did not have, in the 1st century AD. Several distinct Coptic dialects are identified, the most prominent of which are "Sahidic", originating in parts of Upper Egypt, and "Bohairic", originally from the