Coptic small letter Iauda

Coptic iota writes an i-like vowel; by itself it can mean “I.” Inside a Coptic word, ⲓ marks a vowel, and its reading can vary with dialect and neighboring letters. On its own, it can serve as the first-person word “I, me, my.”

Choose a Coptic QWERTY or Coptic Greek keyboard layout to enter Coptic text; key positions depend on the selected layout.

How did Coptic writing develop?

Coptic grew from Greek-letter experiments in writing Egyptian. Those experiments began after Alexander’s conquest of Egypt, toward the end of the fourth century BCE. Christian Egyptians used Coptic to translate sacred texts in the first century CE. Egyptian magical writing in Greek letters is attested in the second century CE; an alphabet could make vowel sounds explicit. By around the turn of the third century CE, the standard Coptic alphabet included Demotic signs—the last native Egyptian script—for sounds Greek letters lacked, reshaped to fit Greek manuscript forms.

Coptic later carried Christian scripture, church services, and private writing. Arabic gradually replaced it in everyday life after the Arab conquest of Egypt; Coptic remained in church use in the late 2010s.