CORRESPONDRE EN COPTE DANS L’ÉGYPTE DU VIe SIECLE

The renewed interest in recent years in the archives of Dioscore of Aphroditê (Middle Egypt, 6th century AD) has brought to light the Coptic documents they contain. By providing new data compared to the better-studied Greek component, these documents contribute to a better historical understanding of these bilingual archives. Moreover, as part of a predominantly Greek collection, they raise questions about the use and function of Coptic in relation to Greek, the language of administration—in other words, the relationship between the national language of the Egyptians and that of the Byzantine authority.

This work presents the first commented edition of a set of twenty-one Coptic letters from the Dioscore of Aphroditê archives, mostly unpublished until now. A synthesis details the new information found in these texts, notably in terms of toponymy, prosopography, and the administrative, social, and fiscal history of the village—historical data likely to complement those provided by the Greek archives. A detailed study of the language, marked by its characteristic dialectal coloring, coupled with material, palaeographic, and formulaic aspects of the Coptic used in this region, also allows for an analysis of the relationship between Greek and Coptic languages in a 6th-century village setting.