Chapter I. The Alphabet

§1. The Coptic Alphabet consists of 31 letters. Of these 24 were borrowed from the Greek Alphabet, the remainder being formed from Demotic characters to express consonantal sounds not represented in Greek.

Notes on the letters.
§2.   g,  d,  z  appear but rarely in purely Coptic words, though they are commonly used in Greek loan words. However, it should be noted that there is a tendency for these letters to be replaced by other consonants; g  replaced by k: e.g. akwra, ke6enna, knwmh; g replaced by 2: e.g. a2wn, sinarpa2h, 2nwmh; d  replaced by 5: e.g. skantalon, peths, preta  (Latin praeda). Note:  g   occasionally appears for k when it follows n. This is especially common in the construct form ang– from anok ‘I’, and in the verbal prefix ng (for nk). In a few cases g appears for the k of the 2^nd masc sing suffix when attached to a verbal form ending in n, e.g. souwn.g for souwn.k, tntwn.t for tntwn.k. A few verbal stems show the same tendency, e.g. moung for mounk , pwng for pwnk. z  appears in an alternate spelling for anshbe ‘school’ as anzhbe.
§3.  q, c, f, x, y   occur mostly in Greek words. In Sahidic they are used sometimes as abbreviations for t6, ks, p6, k6, ps. They are used most extensively in the Bohairic dialect. The following may be noted: q.e  for t.6e ‘The manner’, and certain causative verbs, such as q.mko  for t6.mko ‘To afflict’, q.mso  for t.6mso ‘To cause to sit’. Also, cour  for ksour ‘Ring’, lc  (construct of lwks) ‘To bite’, sxat  for sk6at ‘Marriage gift’, yis  for psis ‘Nine’, leye  for lepse ‘Fragment’.
§4.  i and u   are semi-consonants, for they are employed in Coptic both as consonants and as vowels. (a) As consonants: i  usually appears in the form ei (less commonly as i+, which is the usual form in Bohairic), at the beginning of a syllable. At the end of a word the form i+ is usual. As a consonant it is equivalent to y in the English ‘yet’ (cf Heb y); e.g., eiwt (yot) ‘Father’, eiwm  (yom) ‘Sea’. u, except in Greek words, always appears in the form ou. As a consonant it is equivalent to a ‘w’ or ‘y’ (cf Heb w); e.g., ouwm (wom) ‘To eat’, touwt (twot) ‘Idol’. (b) As vowels: i = i (as in litre); e.g. mise (mi-se) ‘To give birth to’, rir  rir ‘Pig’.  ou = u (as in ‘truth’); e.g. nanou.3  (na-nuf) ‘He is good’, mou6 (muh) ‘To be full’.
§5. The seven letters derived from Demotic:
(a)   4 = ‘sh’ ; transcribed in Greek as sz or simply as s. This letter also represents in some words an original h (curved underline); e.g. 4wpe (sho-pe) from Old Egyptian hpr.
(b)  3 = ‘f’ ; e.g. sa3 (saf) ‘Yesterday’, 3i (fi) ‘To carry’. It frequently replaces b; e.g. nou3  for noub ‘Gold’, 4w3  for 4wb ‘To shave’; and vice versa, 6o3 ‘Serpent’ plural 6boui.
(c)  1 = ‘kh’  (Bohairic only; the ‘hard ch’ as in German and Scotch, or the ‘j’ of Spanish) is not used in Sahidic; in Bohairic, it corresponds to the Sahidic 6 when representing the old consonants h (curved underline) and h (Old Coptic form).
(d)  6 = ‘h’ ; in Sahidic this letter represents four originally distinct sounds, transliterated from the hieroglyphic script as h, h (dotted), h (curved underline), and h. The wide field from which words containing this single form of four original sounds were drawn, can be seen in that about one ninth part of Crum's Coptic Dictionary is devoted to words beginning with 6! In Greek words, 6 is used to represent the Spiritus asper.; e.g. 6agios, 6hgemwn, 6olws, 6wste, etc. Also wrongly used in certain common words: e.g., 6eqnos, 6elpis, 6isos, 6ikwn  (eikwn). 8  is used only in Achmimic to represent the hieroglyphic h (curved underline) and h. It corresponds to Bohairic 1 and sometimes to Sahidic and Bohairic 4.
(e)  `  = ‘j’ , transcribed in Greek as tz or tV (Cf Heb. c). Sometimes it stands as a contraction for t4; e.g. `po for t.4po ‘To cause to become, to beget’. For convenience in reading it may be pronounced in English as the ‘j’ in ‘joke’ or ‘Jam’. Note: `  frequently alternates with 2, especially in Bohairic; e.g. Sah 2i` Boh `i` ‘Hand’, `wlk/2wlk ‘To stretch’, `ero/2ero ‘To blaze’, no2/no` ‘Great’.
(f)  2 = a hard ‘g’ . The original Demotic sign represented k. In Coptic 2  often replaces k; e.g. lw`k and lw`2 ‘To stick’. Also, as noted above (e), 2 alternates with `.
(g)  5 = ‘t’ . It should also be noted that although this letter is counted as a separate symbol in the Alphabetical table, words beginning with 5  should be consulted in Crum's Coptic Dictionary under t.
§6. The Old Egyptian language represented in writing two consonants which were not written in Coptic. These were the glottal stop 3 (Aleph) and the guttural ‘ (Ayin): (a) 3 at an early period had begun to alternate with ’i (y), and as a result the old consonant is represented in many Coptic words as ei (i+); e.g. eiw6e ‘Field’ (old 3ht [h dotted]). But in other forms 3 has completely vanished; e.g. kwb ‘To double’ (old k3b). (b) ‘ had begun to weaken as a consonant in Ptolemaic times, and the mere fact that no symbol for it was deemed necessary at the time when the Coptic script was formulated, indicates that it had all but vanished in the spoken language. However, indication that its original presence was still felt is shown in two ways. First, the presence of the vowel ‘a’ where ‘o’ or ‘e’ would normally be expected; e.g. kaa.3 ‘To place him’ from old *ho3‘ef ® *ha‘ef ® kaa.3 (curved underlines). This preference for vowel sound ‘a’ is also noted with some forms which originally contained 3; e.g. sa ‘Back’ for se, (old s3). Secondly, the presence of a doubled vowel; e.g. ouaab ‘Holy’ (old w‘b), 4wwt ‘To cut’ (old s‘d). In Bohairic this doubling of vowels is no longer observed; e.g. ouab and 4wt, showing that the old Ayin had finally disappeared. Note: The original presence of ‘ in other parts of the consonantal root is occasionally noted by this doubling of a vowel; e.g., mhh4e ‘Crowd’ (old ms‘), pwwne ‘To return’ (old pn‘), etc.
§7. The Vowels are seven in number:

h, o or w always stand in accented syllables. The others can stand in syllables accented or not.
§8. The Diphthongs are formed by a vowel and one of the semi-consonants (two semi-syllables). (a) With i: ai, ei, hi, oi, wi, oui; e.g. e6rai ‘Upwards’, pei- ‘This’, hi ‘House’, 6amoi ‘Oh that!’, pwi ‘Mine’, moui ‘Lion’. (b) With u: au, eu; e.g. nau ‘To see’, peu.6ht ‘Their heart’.
§9. Note: hu (old hou), iou, oou, wou, ouou ought to be considered as forming two sounds rather than as a diphthong; e.g. 3.nhu ‘He is coming’, siou ‘Star’, ntoou ‘They’, 6wou ‘Themselves’, nou.ou ‘Theirs’.
Change of Consonants:
§10. Before b, m, p the letter n changes to m; e.g. m.baampe (for n.baampe) ‘The goats’, m.maein (for n.maein) ‘The signs’,76m.p.kosmos (for 6n.p.kosmos) ‘In the world’. Note 1: When n stands before m or p functioning as Sonant Consonants (§23), it does not change; e.g. 6n.m-.man4wpe ‘In the dwelling places’. Note 2: In some old texts n  is occasionally assimilated with the following consonant if this is b, l or r; e.g. l.laos (for n.laos) ‘The people’, r.rwme (for n.rwme) ‘The humans’.
§11. Before `  the letter s  changes to 4 (but not in Bohairic); e.g., 4a`e ‘To speak’ (Boh sa`i), e4`e ‘If’ (Boh is`e).
§12. There is a very common tendency in Coptic to contract two similar consonants into one. This is especially the case with n; e.g. tet.na.2w (for tetn.na.2w) ‘You will remain’, ne.3.bwk an (for n.ne3.bwk an) ‘He was not going’; cf also mn.th (for mnt.th) ‘Fifteen’, `ou.th (for `out.th) ‘Twenty-five’.
§13. Metathesis is common.

—and many others. Note especially mn- ‘with’ before nouns, but nmma= before pronominal suffixes.
Change of Vowels:
§14. After m and n, w regularly changes to ou; e.g. mour (for mwr) ‘To bind.’ nou`e (for nw`e) ‘To throw’. Note: An exception to this rule is when the 2^nd plural suffix -tn is attached to a stem ending in o; e.g. mmw.tn (stem mmo-) ‘You’. But note noutn (not nwtn) ‘Yours’. Occasionally w changes to ou after 4, ` or 2; e.g. 4ou4t (for 4w4t) ‘Window’, `ou3 (for `w3) ‘To be costly’, 2ouna2 (for 2wna2) ‘Cloak’.
§15. Before 6 and 4 when it represents the old h (curved underline), the vowel o changes to a; e.g. ma6.3 (for mo6.3) ‘To fill it’, pa6.s ‘To break her’, oua4.3 (for ouo4.3) ‘To desire it’. The same change of o to a in words which do not contain 6 or 4 is to be attributed in most cases to the original presence of Ayin (§6).
§16. Contraction of Vowels. Short e occasionally falls away before ou; e.g. soun- (for seoun-) the construct form of sooun ‘To know’, sou- (for seou-) the construct form of siou ‘Star’. But normally, contraction takes place; e.g. meut- (for meout-) the construct form of mouout ‘To kill’, ne.un- (for ne.oun) ‘There was’. Likewise a before ou contracts to au; e.g. a.u.son  bwk  ebol (for a.ou.son  bwk  ebol) ‘A brother went out’. When the vowel ou  is followed by the consonant ou, a contraction to a single semi-consonant takes effect; e.g. nter.ou.w (for nter.ou.ouw) ‘When they ceased’, mp.ou.w4t (for mp.ou.ouw4t) ‘They did not worship’, ouoein (for ou.ouein) ‘A light’.