Curated References & Quotes

A collection of quotes and references that inform and inspire this research.

Each entry is carefully sourced—from books, articles, and archival material—to build a deeper understanding of Coptic language, history, and visual culture.

Quotes

  • Saying 'Coptic,' we thus say 'Egyptian.'
    Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 79
  • The Coptic language is a unique phenomenon. Its origins go back five millennia to the unification of ancient Egypt and it still survives down to the present day in the liturgy of the Coptic Church.
    Gawdat Gabra, Introduction, Coptic Civilization, p. 4
  • The ancient Egyptian language is one of the oldest languages on earth to be written.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 3
  • When the Greeks arrived with Alexander the Great in 331 BC, they brought with them the Greek alphabet and language, which were then used for most official business. The native Egyptian writing continued, however.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 5
  • The Egyptians avoid following Greek customs and, in general, they are unwilling to adopt customs of any people other than their own
    Herodotus, quoted by Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 5
  • Despite numerous invasions and waves of peoples that have poured into our country, particularly since the Saitic (Twenty-sixth) Dynasty (664–525 BC), we Egyptians have kept our identity and traditions.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 5
  • As the population converted to Christianity, a new form of the written language emerged, called Coptic, which represented the colloquial language that descended from the ancient tongue.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 6
  • The Coptic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet (which includes vowels, by the way), and for sounds not represented by Greek letters new ones derived from Demotic (and thus ultimately from hieroglyphs) were added at the end of the alphabet. These letters are: shai, fai, khai, hori, jenja, chima, ti.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 6
  • Coptic, the last phase of the Egyptian language, survived as a living language until the seventeenth century of our present era in some villages in Upper Egypt.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 8
  • The Coptic Church still celebrates parts of its mass in Coptic. The Egyptians, whether Orthodox Copts or other Christians or Muslims, despite their deep-rooted religious zeal, inherited strong traditions that led them to continue to unconsciously adopt old personal names, unaware that these names were pagan and imply high esteem of ancient gods and idols.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 8
  • With the advent of the Arabs and the expansion of Islam, the Egyptians, then known as Copts, started speaking Arabic together with their native language Coptic.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 9
  • The mixture of the two languages has given birth in the long run to the sweetest Arabic dialect in the Arab world today.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 9
  • It has also given birth to a number of expressions and idioms taken directly and translated word for word from ancient Egyptian, thus underlining the tight links with the past that remained constant over thousands of years.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 9
  • Many words may actually go back to the most ancient tongue, but not every word ever spoken by the Egyptian people—or even the pharaoh himself—was recorded.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 9
  • It is difficult to tell why or when exactly Coptic died out as a spoken language, and it is very probable that this phenomenon varied according to the different strata of the population and to different geographical locations in the country.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. viii
  • You can't use a new language unless you change the consciousness that is tied to the old one, unless you stretch beyond the circle of grammar and dictionary, out of the old world and into a new one.
    Michael Agar, quoted in the Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. viii
  • With the advent of Islam and its sweeping expansions in the world, Egypt was conquered by the Arabs in 641 and the course of its history changed radically.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips
  • People gradually converted to Islam, and the upper strata of the population started to learn Arabic, as they had learned Greek before, in the Hellenistic period, because it was the language of the rulers and was gradually becoming the language of administration.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips
  • Until the massive immigration of arabs into the country in the early eighth century, when Arabic became the official language of administration, there was no real urge among the population to learn the rulers' language, and Arabic must have been initially acquired as a second language next to Coptic...
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips
  • The Shift from Coptic to Arabic was probably more gradual among Christians...
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips
  • Traces of the 'old traditions' that did not touch upon the dogma of absolute monotheism are still present today...
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips
  • ...by the end of the twelfth century Arabic had become the main written language of the church, indicating that the population could no longer understand Coptic. Nevertheless, during the process of arabization, many words belonging to the old tongue remained in use, enriching the vocabulary of the new one and giving it its particular flavor.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. ix
  • In the same way, expressions and metaphors drawn essentially from the environment and from social behavior were translated from Egyptian/Coptic into Arabic, because the way Egyptians viewed their world and expressed their age-old feelings and wisdom had not changed with the change of language.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. ix
  • ...this is what happened to Egyptians who spoke Arabic but felt that a word of their old language expressed better what they wanted to convey or who, fearing that their interlocutor might not understand the equivalent Arabic word, repeated it in Coptic or created a composite of both.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, pp. ix–x
  • It seems that Coptic words were more persistently used in the countryside away from the big cosmopolitan agglomeration or the arabized centers of administration. They also remained in the technical jargon of traditional professions related to the land and to the Nile and in the vocabulary commonly used in the home.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. x
  • In fact, our modern vernacular includes words from most of the languages of the nations that have invaded Egypt from the Persians to modern times and who stayed long enough in the country to have some impact on its people.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. x
  • But a language includes more than just grammar and vocabulary.
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. x
  • In order to really understand it, 'to live in it, all those meanings that go beyond grammar and the dictionary have to fit somewhere.'
    Introduction by Fayza Haikal (quoting Michael Agar), From Pharaoh's Lips, p. x
  • The same meaning is found in the Egyptian Arabic expression, 'to be on someone's water,' yikūn ʿala mayyit fulān.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 56
  • It is really a matter of wonder that this particular new moon announcing the Islamic month of fasting was and is still celebrated in Coptic, the language used today in Egyptian Christian rituals.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 62
  • Throughout the centuries, they have found in our ancestors' calendar an excellent chronometer that was an accurate guide for life.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 64
  • Bayūmi and Sawsan organize their daily life and agricultural activities around a special calendar that has been inherited from their most ancient ancestors. Names of the months of the Coptic calendar, which came to be used alongside the Gregorian and Hegira calendars, reflect an even more ancient origin, and these names are still used, especially in the countryside.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 64
  • The ordinary fellaḥīn, or farmers, retain this calendar, unaware that the names honor gods like Thoth, Hathor, and Khonsu, nor do they allow their Christian or Muslim faith to be disturbed by such pagan names.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 64
  • Instructive mottos and phrases that highlighted the quality of each month or what should be done during that time were passed down from generation to generation.
    Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, From Pharaoh's Lips, p. 68
  • ...in spite of all pressures to make an 'easy choice' for Arabic.
    Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 84
  • The linguistic Arabization in Egypt did not mean Islamization.
    Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 85
  • ...Pharaonism, which acknowledges the common descendance and common national identity of all Egyptians, irrespective of religious differences.
    Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 86
  • Coptic as attested in written sources can be described as a prestige language, endowed with a certain symbolic capital, that has functioned in a multilingual and multiliterate society for the greater part of its history.
    Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 87
  • The language of our fathers / Is your real language. / Learn it, for it is necessary / To speak it at home.
    Coptic nursery rhyme by Pisenti Rizkallah Girgis (New Songs, Cairo 1969), translated in Ewa D. Zakrzewska, "The Coptic Language," in Coptic Civilization, p. 87, fig. 7.6
  • While the Coptic language eventually died as a means of everyday communication, it continued to possess significance as the language of the liturgy and as a marker of Coptic Orthodox identity.
    Mark N. Swanson, "Copto-Arabic Literature," in Coptic Civilization, p. 156
  • The contemporary man has the right to know his origins and how these origins developed...
    Isaac Fanous (1990), quoted by Monica René, "Contemporary Coptic Art," in Coptic Civilization, p. 279
  • ...second- and third-generation Copts who have never known life in Egypt have begun to express their own sense of identity, one that takes the art, music, language, literature, and liturgy of their parents as a point of reference...
    Saad Michael Saad, "Coptic Civilization in the Diaspora," in Coptic Civilization, p. 296
  • New generations of Copts will build upon ancient foundations, creating structures shaped both by the cultural traditions of their parents and by the influences and idioms of their new societies.
    Saad Michael Saad, "Coptic Civilization in the Diaspora," in Coptic Civilization, p. 296
  • ...there ought to exist Contemporary Coptic Art that stems from the deep roots, extended in the depths of time...
    Isaac Fanous, quoted by Monica René, "Contemporary Coptic Art," in Coptic Civilization, p. 279
  • The Coptic style is very national and very international.
    Isaac Fanous, quoted by Monica René, "Contemporary Coptic Art," in Coptic Civilization, p. 282
  • The dawning of visible language, the magnificent gift to mankind that was writing, passed forward to Egypt and Phoenicia.
    Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design, p. 12
  • Ancient Egypt clearly represents the early phases of Western civilization as we know it today.
    Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design, p. 15
  • The ancient Egyptians had an extraordinary sense of design and were sensitive to the decorative and textural qualities of their hieroglyphs.
    Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design, p. 15
  • The Egyptians were the first people to produce illustrated manuscripts in which words and pictures were combined to communicate information.
    Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design, p. 18
  • Typography makes at least two kinds of sense, if it makes any sense at all. It makes visual sense and historical sense.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 9
  • The principles of typography as I understand them are not a set of dead conventions but the tribal customs of the magic forest, where ancient voices speak from all directions and new ones move to unremembered forms.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 9
  • By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 10
  • Letterforms change constantly yet differ very little, because they are alive.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 10
  • ...most of the principles of legibility and design explored in this book were known and used by Egyptian scribes writing hieratic script with reed pens on papyrus in 1000 BC.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 10
  • The principles that unite these distant schools of design are based on the structure and scale of the human body...
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 10
  • Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form...
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 11
  • Typography exists to honor content.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 17
  • Typography at its best is a visual form of language linking timelessness and time.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 17
  • Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 18
  • Writing begins with the making of footprints, the leaving of signs.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 18
  • The original purpose of type was simply copying.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 18
  • Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 19
  • [Typographers, like musicians and composers,] must as a rule do their work and disappear.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 21
  • Letterforms have tone, timbre, character, just as words and sentences do.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 22
  • Letters are microscopic works of art as well as useful symbols. They mean what they are as well as what they say.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 23
  • Arabic numerals – known in Arabic as Indian numerals, arqām hindiyya, because the Arabs obtained them from India – entered the scribal tradition of Europe in the thirteenth century.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 46
  • Alphabets are often created by fiat, but it is usually in tiny increments that real typographic style evolves.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 114
  • But in a world where there are hundreds of ancestral and classical languages and literatures instead of one or two, prayers for renewed diversification often entail the dream of a common script.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 114
  • The earliest surviving European letterforms are Greek capitals scratched into stone.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 119
  • Monastic scribes – who were designers, copyists and archivists as well – kept many of the older letterforms alive.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 120
  • Sacred scriptures, legal documents, romance literature, business and personal letters all required different scripts, and particular forms evoked specific languages and regions.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 121
  • But letterforms are not only objects of science. They also belong to the realm of art, and they participate in its history.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 121
  • Typographic history is just that: the study of the relationships between type design and the rest of human activity – politics, philosophy, the arts, and the history of ideas. It is a lifelong pursuit, but one that is informative and rewarding from the beginning.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 122
  • Every alphabet is a culture. Every culture has its own version of history and its own accumulation of tradition.
    Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p. 142