Dear Copts and Coptophiles!
How do we translate things into Coptic which haven't existed in former times, but are now part of every modern literary tongue.
If Copts didn't have their owns words, they borrowed from Greek and, later, since the Arab conquest of Egypt, from Arabic.
Let's start with countries. I think, Russia is an easy example because the spelling from Greek is quite the same as if we borrow the word from Arabic: ⲣⲱⲥⲓⲁ.
But what about France? In (both Ancient and Modern!) Greek, France is called ⲅⲁⲗⲗⲓⲁ ("Gaul", "Gallia"), but if we use the Arabic expression, we come to ϥⲁⲣⲁⲛⲥⲁ or, maybe "better" Coptic, ϥⲣⲁⲛⲥⲁ.
Austria: ⲁⲩⲥⲧⲣⲓⲁ or ⲁⲛⲛⲉⲙⲥⲁ ?
Brazil: ⲃⲣⲁⲍⲓⲗⲓⲁ or ⲁⲗⲃⲁⲣⲁⲍⲓⲗ ?
China: ⲕⲓⲛⲁ or ⲁⲥⲥⲓⲛ [Coptic usually borrowed the Arabic words with article, so it would be more "original" to say ⲁⲥⲥⲓⲛ than ⲥⲓⲛ]
Germany: ⲅⲉⲣⲙⲁⲛⲓⲁ or ⲁⲗⲙⲁⲛⲓⲁ
For some countries, we now how it is called: ϩⲉⲗⲗⲁⲥ instead of ⲁⲗⲓⲟⲩⲛⲁⲛ. So should we use the Greek sources or not?
And how would you call "computer", "theater", "television" or "mobile phone" in Coptic?
