# Sahidic Coptic

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/sahidic-coptic — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-02)

Sahidic is a dialect of Coptic attested in biblical manuscripts, monastic literature, romances, inscriptions, and medieval grammatical studies.[^1][^4][^5][^6][^7]

## Language and linguistic features

Sahidic is a dialect of Coptic discussed alongside Bohairic in medieval grammatical works.[^1] In linguistic notation it is designated **S**; classical Sahidic lost the phoneme /x/, which Akhmimic and Bohairic retained from earlier Egyptian.[^2]

One example of distinctive vocabulary is *apa*, the Sahidic counterpart of Bohairic *abba*. These forms are cognate with the Greek monastic titles *abbas* or *abba*, associated with the meaning “father” and used for monks recognized as spiritual fathers.[^3]

## Manuscripts and literature

Sahidic is represented in biblical manuscript collections. The Crosby Schøyen Codex, a single-quire papyrus codex in Sahidic, preserves works including *On the Pascha*, a translation of 2 Maccabees 5:27–7:41, 1 Peter, Jonah, and an unidentified text.[^4]

Monastic libraries also preserved Sahidic hagiography. At least four Sahidic codices from the White Monastery contained material concerning John of Lycopolis, although only about thirty damaged leaves survived from their several hundred original leaves. The surviving material includes lives and an encomium, or formal work of praise.[^5]

Sahidic literature also includes romances. A fragmentary Sahidic version of the *Alexander Romance* came from a manuscript of the White Monastery near Suhaj. The *Cambyses Romance* survives in six damaged parchment leaves written in Sahidic, probably dating to the eighth or ninth century.[^6]

## Ecclesiastical and devotional use

The Sahidic version of the *Apostolic Canons* contains seventy-one canons. There are two complete manuscripts, one dated to 1005–1006 and another to the eighteenth or nineteenth century; the Bohairic translation was made from Sahidic.[^8]

Sahidic also appears in devotional inscriptions. Graffiti at Wadi Shaykh ‘Ali include personal names and appeals such as “Pray for me in love” and “Jesus Christ, help me.”[^7]

## Medieval preservation and study

The *Mysteries of Greek Letters*, translated into Sahidic from Greek, survives in a bilingual Sahidic-Arabic manuscript in the Bodleian Library. Its copyist recorded completing his work on 9 May 1393.[^9]

Medieval scholars studied Sahidic grammar alongside Bohairic. The fourteenth-century *Triadon*, a didactic poem in Sahidic by an anonymous author, originally comprised 734 verses, of which 428 survived with an Arabic translation. In the fifteenth century, women and children in Upper Egypt knew almost no language for communication other than Sahidic Coptic.[^1]

## Sources
[^1]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 711)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 421)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 6)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 835)
[^5]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 30)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 64)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 65)
[^7]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 675)
[^8]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 348)
[^9]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 133)