| Cypriot Arabic | |
|---|---|
| Cypriot Maronite Arabic | |
| Σάννα ·Sanna ·سانا | |
| Native to | Cyprus |
| Region | Kormakitis and urban areas in the south |
| Ethnicity | Maronite Cypriots,Lebanese Cypriots |
| Speakers | NoL1 speakers in the south (2011)[1] 9,800 total speakers (2013 UNSD)[2] |
| Greek andLatin Arabic script (historical) | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | acy |
| Glottolog | cypr1248 |
| ELP | Cypriot Spoken Arabic |
| Linguasphere | 12-AAC-ehx |
 Cypriot Arabic | |
 Cypriot Arabic is classified as Severely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Cypriot Arabic (Arabic:العربية القبرصية,Greek:Κυπριακά Αραβικά), also known asCypriot Maronite Arabic orSanna (Arabic:سانا,Greek:Σάννα),[3] is amoribundvariety ofArabic spoken by theMaronite community ofCyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated inKormakitis, but following theTurkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the majority relocated to the south and dispersed,[4] leading to the decline of the language.[5] Traditionally bilingual inCypriot Greek, as of some time prior to 2000, all remaining speakers of Cypriot Arabic were over 30 years of age.[6] A 2011 census reported that, of the 3,656 Maronite Cypriots in Republic of Cyprus-controlled areas, none declared Cypriot Arabic as theirfirst language.[1]
Cypriot Arabic was first introduced to Cyprus byMaronites who came mainly fromLebanon andSyria as early as the seventh century, with waves of immigration up to the thirteenth century.[7][5] Since 2002, it is one of UNESCO-designated severelyendangered languages[8] and, since 2008, it is recognised as a minority language of Cyprus,[9] coinciding with an attempt to revitalise the language.[10]
Cypriot Arabic has in the past been assigned to a Syrian-Lebanese orLevantine Arabic classification, likely owing to the contemporary presence of a large Lebanese-speaking Maronite community on the mainland.[11] However, more recently it has been shown to share a large number of common features with theqeltu orNorth Mesopotamian Arabic dialects of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and a pre-Cypriot medieval antecedent has been deduced as belonging to this dialect area.[12] Indications of an Aramaic substrate suggest it was close to the time of the language shift from Aramaic to Arabic; other features are common to those of Syro-Lebanese and Palestinian, which go back to a period in which there was adialect continuum between the Mesopotamian dialects and the Syrian dialect area.[4][7]
In the Cypriot stage, the language was extensively restructured through contact withCypriot Greek, acquiring numerous features and constraints not typical of Arabic.[13] Essentially unintelligible to mainland Arabic speakers, it is characterized as an isolated "peripheral Arabic" along with others such asMaltese.[14] Its Arabic component is a hybrid of dialects from diverse areas and times of Southeastern Anatolia, northern Syria, and Mesopotamia, as well as the Levant, offering unique insights into the historical evolution of Eastern Arabic.[15]
Borg (1997) argues that the sound system of Cypriot Arabic has been heavily influenced by that ofCypriot Greek. Cypriot Arabic has lost allemphatic consonants andstop-voicing opposition (though this is subject to debate in literature)[16]—but retainedgemination. Geminate voiceless stop consonants surface asaspirates.[17] Furthermore, Old Arabic/q/ merged with/k/,/b/ became/p/, and/d/ merged with/t/. The following fricatives have merged with each other:/ɣ/ merged with/ʕ/, while/h/ and/ħ/ merged with/x/.[18]
The consonantphonemes of Cypriot Arabic, according toBorg (1997), are/mnptkfvθðszʃʒxjlrʕ/.Affricates[t͡ʃd͡ʒ] occur asallophones ofclusters/tʃdʒ/. Voiced stops occur as allophones of voiceless stopsintervocalically and next to asonorant or/z/.[19] There are five vowel phonemes,/aeiou/, and two diphthongs,/ajaw/.[20] Phonological rules observed in Cypriot Arabic include:[21]
Phenomena similar to the first three are also observed in Cypriot Greek.
In May 2009, the Committee of Experts for the Codification of Cypriot Maronite Arabic submitted an action plan for the codification and revitalisation of the language to the Cypriot government.[22] The Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research reported in 2006 that both theGreek andLatin script had been suggested for adoption. The Greek script is used for Cypriot Arabic in a Cypriot Arabic–Greekdictionary.[23]
Alexander Borg, a linguist specialising in the language, created a Latin-based alphabet with elements from Maltese and Greek that thenon-governmental organisation for the revitalisation of the language "Hki Fi Sanna" endorsed in 2007, and some "small texts" have apparently been translated into it.[24]
| Uppercase | A | B | C | D | Δ | E | F | G | Ġ | Ċ | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Θ | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Ş |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase | a | b | c | d | ẟ | e | f | g | ġ | ċ | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | θ | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | ş |
| Perso-Arabic equivalent | ا | ب | ع | د | ذ | ه | ف | گ | ج | ﭺ | ى | ﮊ | ک | ل | م | ن | ﺁ | ﭖ | ث | ر | س | ت | و | ڤ | ؤ | خ | ي | ز | ش |
All letters loosely represent theirIPA values, with some exceptions:
| Ismi o Kumetto. Ayşo ismak l-id? | My name is Kumetto. What is your name? |
| Ismi l-ana o Pavlo. Ayşo ismik l-idi? | My name is Pavlo. What is your name? (fem.) |
| L-aẟa aş pikulullu? | What is his name? |
| L-ism tel l-yapati o Antoni | My father's name is Antoni |
| Xmenye u tisca aşka pisawnna? | What do eight and nine make? |
| Pisawnna caşra u sapca. | They make seventeen |
| Aş xar kan imps? Imps kan Yamuxmis | What day was yesterday? Yesterday was Thursday |
| Aş xar tte kun pukra? Pukra tte kun Yamussift | What day is tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday |
| Yamuxxat marrux fi li knise | On Sunday we go to church |
| Kilt xops ma zaytun, xaytċ casel u şraft xlip tel pakra | I ate bread with olives, some honey and drank some cow's milk |
| Ye | Yes |
| La | No |
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