Most current interpretations of the emergence, role and death of Coptic in medieval Nubia stand in need of revision. They are usually based upon impressions gained from only part of the available material and lack the support of appropriate sociolinguistic models. In an attempt to stimulate the debate about multilingualism in Christian Nubia, this article proposes four statements for discussion, preceded by a brief survey of the surviving Coptic textual material from Nubia, which is our main source of information.

First published in: W. Godlewski, and A. Łajtar (eds.), Between the Cataracts: Proceedings of the 11th Conference for Nubian Studies, Warsaw University, 27 August – 2 September 2006, II: Session papers (PAM Supplement Series 2.2/2), Warsaw: Warsaw University Press 2010, 765–71.