In the first cent. AD (thus, yet in the pagan period), hellenization was almost complete, and fewer and fewer people knew the Egyptian script. Therefore Egyptian (i.e. demotic) started to be written with the majuscules of the Greek alphabet. Now for the first time, vowels were written systematically. However, the Greek alphabet had to be adapted to the Egyptian language, as the latter had seven sounds that Greek lacked. The new script therefore borrowed six or seven letters from the Demotic script, among them ש (‘shin’) for the sound /ʃ/. Demotic then became the only script to be used for writing the Coptic language.