Coptic Lessons is an app that aims to make learning the Bohairic dialect of Coptic more accessible for the general public. It has been a passion project of mine for a little over a year as of June 2024. I have always been interested in the possibility of reviving this dead language, even to a minor extent. My hope is that this app will make learning Coptic a more entertaining endeavor by providing practice for new skills.

Coptic is to the language of the Ancient Egyptians as English is to Old English: they are simply later evolutions of the older forms of the language. At the time that Christianity spread to Egypt, Coptic was the vernacular for the Egyptians. As such, many hymns in the Coptic Orthodox Church were written in Coptic and are preserved until today. The specific dialect they were written in was Bohairic, the predominant dialect in Alexandria.

To preserve Coptic is to preserve one of the oldest traditions of Christianity in the world. To chant a hymn in a language one does not know prevents true understanding of the hymn and its poetic language. Furthermore, a connection with the Coptic fathers of the church fosters a connection of thought to further preserve the faith for future generations.

Apart from the religious aspect, however, Coptic also brings value in its grammar and semantics. One does not need to be Egyptian to appreciate the practicality of the language, and I hope this app is able to communicate this well.

Unfortunately, it is currently a bit more complicated to download the Coptic Lessons App on Android than on IOS, but it is now possible.

1. Go to this link and download the .apk file.

• If you get a notification warning you that the file may be harmful, please click download anyway.

2. Click on the .apk file in your downloads folder.

• Make sure that you give permission to whichever browser you are using to download unknown applications.

3. Click the download button.

I will try to simplify this installation process, but Google has a few prohibitive restrictions on publishing apps to the platform. Google requires at least 20 testers to run the app for at least 14 days. If you would be interested in getting the Coptic Lessons app on the Play Store, please contact me at jonathansboktor@gmail.com to offer running the app as a tester.