The Coptic language is the final stage of ancient Egyptian, written in the Greek alphabet with a few added letters from Demotic to capture Egyptian sounds. It emerged around the 2nd century AD and became the main language of Egypt’s Christians. The two most well-known dialects are Sahidic, used in Upper Egypt, and Bohairic, used in Lower Egypt, the latter still serving as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. After the Arab conquest in 641 AD, Arabic gradually replaced Coptic in daily life. By the 13th century, Coptic was used mainly in worship. Though no longer spoken conversationally, it lives on in church prayers, hymns, and scripture, preserving Egypt’s Christian heritage.