Coptic Small Letter Tau

A Coptic layout can map t to ⲧ.

A documented Coptic keyboard mapping assigns lowercase Latin t to ⲧ. On a regular Latin layout, that key produces t, a transliteration rather than the Coptic character.

Use a font with Coptic coverage to display ⲧ. Typefaces can draw it differently without changing its identity.

What does ⲧ mean in a Coptic word?

It marks a consonant; the whole word carries the meaning.

Coptic writing developed from attempts to write Egyptian with Greek letters in the late fourth century BCE. Writers added signs from Demotic, an earlier Egyptian script, for sounds Greek lacked. By the third century CE, Bible translation helped drive Coptic's development.

Coptic served Christian scripture and monastic writing, then developed literary and liturgical traditions in several dialects. Sahidic carried much of the literary tradition before Bohairic became the Coptic Church's official dialect in the eleventh century. As of 2026, Coptic remains liturgical and appears in digital manuscript scholarship.