Greek Poetry and Magic as Likely Sources for Coptic Vowel Orthography
The following is a consolidation of years-long research findings, to gather further feedback in preparation for an article to be submitted for peer review. Major portions of this thinking were previously circulated at a 2021 Egyptological Symposium of the American Research Center in Egypt’s Missouri Chapter, and in unsuccessful proposals considered for conferences in 2023 and 2024 and for a 2024/2025 visiting researcher position. . . . Despite disagreement over particular scenario details, scholarship already appropriately envisions that much of Coptic orthography arose and was first consolidated among people educated in Greek but also somehow associated with Egyptian temples (e.g. Frankfurter 1998: 250-253 and 257-264; Bagnall 2017: 20-21, 24; Quack 2017: 76-79; Love 2021: 169-172). Within this type of social context, Greek poetry and magic should also be highlighted, because they are the likeliest sources of inspiration for two underappreciated aspects of Coptic vowel orthogra...