Latin in the Egyptian Monasteries: A Context for Linguistic Interference

Modern lexicography explains all Latin terms in Coptic as adopted through Greek. While it is true that the preponderance of Greek in the linguistic landscape of Egypt can explain most borrowing, actual contact between Latin speakers and Coptic-speakers could also allow linguistic interference not necessarily mediated by the Greek language. It is not easy to ground this hypothesis, since the number of actual examples preserved in literature and documents is very scanty. I will present in this paper some evidence for the use of Latin in the monasteries and the environment in which borrowing was facilitated, followed by a sample of lexical loan exchange between the two languages.