The use of Coptic from the 4th to the 6th century: why write in Coptic rather than in Greek?
Last year, we followed the emergence of Coptic in Christian Egyptian circles that were fully Hellenized, and this year we'll explore its position vis-à-vis Greek during the first three centuries of its existence. We'll see how, reflecting the profound cultural and political changes that shaped late society, the latter evolved according to a dynamic that led to Coptic gaining ever more ground.
While Coptic first appeared in our sources in the last decades of the 3rd century as a medium of learning, it was not until the second third of the following century that it developed as a medium of communication for everyday life. Last year's examination of preserved bilingual sets from the 4th and 5th centuries showed that it was used almost exclusively in the field of private epistolography. As a result, we have seen a very clear division of documentation, based on a linguistic division: on the one hand, Coptic for informal writings, belonging to the private sphere, and on the other, Greek for all kinds of writings, formal or informal, belonging to the public or private sphere. Exceptions are rare, and the only indisputable one is a fourth-century forward sale (P.Kellis VII 123). Although written in Coptic, this document borrows its form from Greek receipts, with which it nevertheless presents fundamental differences, the most obvious of which is the use of epistolary form, the only form of written expression known in Coptic at the time. The renunciation of copying Greek chirographic or notarial documents in Coptic reflects an awareness of the incompatibility between this language and legal instruments.
