Coptic

Coptic is a family of closely-related dialects descended from the Ancient Egyptian language and historically spoken by the Copts of Egypt up until the 10th century. Coptic was supplanted by Egyptian Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Muslim conquest of Egypt and didn't die out in the populace until the mid-late 10th century. The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period c. 325 – c. 800 AD. Bohairic, the language of the Nile Delta, gained prominence in the 9th century and is the dialect used by the Coptic Church today. However, the original language, derived from the ancient Egyptian language, had long been modified and heavily influenced by Arabic and Greek.

Sahidic (also known as Thebaic) is the dialect in which most known Coptic texts are written, and was the leading dialect in the pre-Islamic period. It is thought to have originally been a regional dialect from the area around Hermopolis. Around 300 it began to be written in literary form, including translations of major portions of the Bible. By the 6th century, a standardized spelling had been attained throughout Egypt. Almost all native authors wrote in this dialect of Coptic. Sahidic was, beginning in the 9th century, challenged by Bohairic, but is attested as late as the 14th century.
Syres, the protagonist, speaks the dialect of Sahidic fluently, as it is his mother-tongue, spoken by his parents and grandparents. Syres also knew other dialects such as Bohairic and Fayyumic from Upper (Delta) Egypt. He also knows Arabic, being the first of his family to learn it fluently. When Syres returns to Egypt in the early 12th century, he is disheartened to see that no one except the outlying nomads of the desert still spoke Coptic. When he does meet someone who learned Coptic from their own grandparents, he is relieved, asking about his home village and how it expanded and changed since he had last been there.