here is the link to the story.It is shameful that a lot of foreign people believed that the Egyptian language must still be alive while the copts do no think except in a very negative way. _http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106) # language’s last survivors
By Joseph Mayton First Published: December 10, 2005 (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/popimage.aspx?ImageID=29) <IMAGECAPTION>Coptic is a combination of the ancient Egyptian languages Demotic, Hieroglyphic and <ARTICLE _CAIRO_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) : Considered an extinct language, the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) language is believed to exist only in the liturgical language of the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) Church in Egypt. The ancient language that lost in prominence thanks largely to the Arab incursion into Egypt over 1300 years ago remains the spoken language of the church and only two families in Egypt. _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) is a combination of the ancient Egyptian languages Demotic, Hieroglyphic and Hieratic, and was the language used by the Ptolemaic rulers of _Egypt_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) following the spread of Greek culture throughout much of the Near East. In essence, it is the language of the ancient Egyptians themselves. Mona Zaki is one of only a handful of people that continue to use the language in everyday conversation. She speaks a colloquial form of _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) with her parents and a few relatives that dates back 2,000 years. “In many ways it helps strengthen my faith,” Zaki said. “It has really helped when I go to church because they still use a form of _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) for many services.” Her dialect, however, differs slightly from the standard _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) that is used for study and church services. She does not speak _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) with her children. “I felt that _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) was a worthless language to have my children speak, therefore I did not do so when they were young,” said Zaki. _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) is the language of the first Christian church in history, and when the members of the two families that speak the colloquial form of _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) die, it will be the first language of the early Christian churches to become extinct. Among those early languages, Aramaic was thought to be extinct until recent history proved otherwise. The language is still spoken in parts of southern Turkey and northwest Syria. Zaki feels it would be a great loss to _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) Christianity and the world if the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) language is totally lost. “I hope that the world will come to realize the importance of _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) in Christian doctrine, ” Zaki said. “Egypt is the first home for a Christian church and that makes _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) truly the first language of _Christianity_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) in a sense.” “It is sad to think that the language will truly be dead in the next 100 years. They are already classifying _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) as a dead language in most encyclopedias,” Zaki said. Neither parents used _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) with their children. This is similar to the historical decline of the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) language. With the Arab conquest, Arabic began to be the language spoken in everyday life. After a period of religious turmoil in Egypt, _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) leaders decided to use Arabic as their main means of conversation in order to show the Arab rulers that they were not conspirators of the European Crusaders. It is a sad fact that the language will soon go the way of Latin. Copt itself means Egypt. The word Egypt comes from the Greek aiguptios and the Arabic qupt – both of those words were derived from the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) language that was spoken when each community ascended upon Egypt. _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) is the closest descendant to the spoken language of the ancient Egyptians. Combining the _Greek_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) alphabet with Demotic, _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) is a unique conglomeration of languages. Despite this fact, _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) has no official status in Egypt. The form spoken in church services differs from Zaki’ s. _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) is a combination of the ancient Egyptian languages Demotic, Hieratic and Hieroglyphic. It was the latest evolution of the _Egyptian_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) language. “My parents passed the language down to me like their parents did before them. Unfortunately for Copts throughout Egypt, this process was broken over the years,” she said. “I guess I have continued the destruction of the language in many ways by me not passing it along to my children “My parents felt it was an important part of our heritage and spoke to me in _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) since I can remember,” Zaki revealed. “Why I didn’t pass on the language to my children, I don’t know.” Zaki says that she often receives strange looks when she is overheard speaking _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) on her mobile phone. “People look at me as if I am an alien and I don’t belong. I guess that is what my ancestors had to deal with,although violently in some instances,” she said,which is the main reason that Zaki chose not to speak _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) with her children. “I didn’t want my kids to have to experience the exclusion that _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) had with me when I was younger,” she revealed. “I can remember my friends making fun of me when I talked to my parents But it is vital to her cultural understanding of being a Copt in a country dominated by _Islam_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) . “It gives me the strength to practice my faith despite all the hardship that being Christian in an Islamic country has,” Zaki said. Some scholars have theorized that some remote villagers in the Delta region of Egypt or in the south of the country may still speak forms of the _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) language. Because many Egyptians live in small villages away from government control and active study by anthropologists, it is theorized that _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) will persist despite official numbers. “It would be _nice_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=106#) to have more people speaking _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) ,” Zaki admitted. “It would mean that our culture and way of life will continue in the years to come.” That is unlikely considering the evidence. As it is already considered a dead language akin to Latin, it seems implausible that undiscovered speakers of _Coptic_ (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/search.aspx?Keyword="Coptic";) will be discovered. 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