Through all of Fournet’s methodical and nuanced argumentation and his meticulous analysis of primary sources, the reader will take away an impression of Coptic’s unique origins, being wholly indebted to Greek, along with its brief moment as an autonomous language in the public domain, just before the advent of the all-encompassing control of Arabic in Egypt.

Jean-Luc Fournet. The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian Versus Greek in Late Antiquity. The Rostovtzeff lectures. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR). Review by Matthew Westermayer, Cornell University