Coptic Small Letter Dialect-P Kapa

ⲹ writes the k sound in Dialect P.

Dialect P, also called Proto-Theban, is a variety of Coptic, the latest historical stage of Egyptian. Coptic writing uses the Greek alphabet plus signs adapted from Demotic, an earlier Egyptian script.

The only surviving text written in Dialect P is P. Bodmer VI, a parchment book of Proverbs from the late third century; ⲹ appears in its spelling.

Is ⲹ the same as ⲕ?

No; Dialect P gives these two Coptic letters different jobs.

In most other Coptic spellings, ⲕ writes the k sound. Dialect P uses ⲹ for that sound; there, ⲕ writes a consonant that other dialects spell with ϣ.

For a casual reader, this is a historical spelling distinction; for an editor preserving a Dialect-P text, it can identify the dialect. The Demotic letter behind ⲹ represents Egyptian hieroglyph 𓈎, the sandy hill-slope sign. By the early modern period, Coptic had fallen out of everyday speech, but continued as a liturgical language for Coptic Christians.

How can I type ⲹ?

Use a Unicode character map if your keyboard lacks this letter.

Search by the name “Dialect-P Kapa” or enter the Unicode address U+2CB9 if your character map supports code-point search. Fonts can change the letter’s shape without changing its identity; Greek κ is a separate character.