The Coptic language shows several dialects being spoken in Egypt after about 450 C.E., dialects that, in all probability; were mutually comprehensible, at least for persons with some education. However, there is a problem: it is still not completely possible for scholars to tell what parts of Egypt were the homes to specific dialects. To take a few examples: the "Sahidic" dialect of Coptic has a name that suggests that it originated in southern Egypt, but many linguists believe it actually originated in the north. In contrast, Fayyumic is fairly easy to spot: like Demotic texts from the Fayyum, the consonant "I" (written with the Greek letter lamda) often appears where other Coptic dialects use the consonant "r" (written with the Greek letter-rho). The variety of Coptic usea most often by modern Egyptian Christians is Bohairic, a dialect that...