Cypriot Arabic

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other Template:Main other Template:Location map Cypriot Arabic (Template:Langx, Template:Langx), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (Template:Langx, Template:Langx),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers were mostly situated in Kormakitis, but following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the majority relocated to the south and dispersed,Template:Sfnp leading to the decline of the language.Template:Sfnp Traditionally bilingual in Cypriot Greek, as of some time prior to 2000, all remaining speakers of Cypriot Arabic were over 30 years of age.<ref name="e13">Template:E13</ref> A 2011 census reported that, of the 3,656 Maronite Cypriots in Republic of Cyprus-controlled areas, none declared Cypriot Arabic as their first language.Template:Sfnp

History and classificationEdit

File:Koruçam 09.jpg

Altar at Old Saint George Church, Kormakitis, with Arabic inscription

Cypriot Arabic was first introduced to Cyprus by Maronites who came mainly from Lebanon and Syria as early as the seventh century, with waves of immigration up to the thirteenth century.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Since 2002, it is one of UNESCO-designated severely endangered languages Template:Sfnp and, since 2008, it is recognised as a minority language of Cyprus,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> coinciding with an attempt to revitalise the language.Template:Sfnp

Cypriot Arabic has in the past been assigned to a Syrian-Lebanese or Levantine Arabic classification, likely owing to the contemporary presence of a large Lebanese-speaking Maronite community on the mainland.Template:Sfnp However, more recently it has been shown to share a large number of common features with the qeltu or North Mesopotamian Arabic dialects of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and a pre-Cypriot medieval antecedent has been deduced as belonging to this dialect area.Template:Sfnp 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 a dialect continuum between the Mesopotamian dialects and the Syrian dialect area.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

In the Cypriot stage, the language was extensively restructured through contact with Cypriot Greek, acquiring numerous features and constraints not typical of Arabic.Template:Sfnp Essentially unintelligible to mainland Arabic speakers, it is characterized as an isolated "peripheral Arabic" along with others such as Maltese.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

PhonologyEdit

Template:Missing information Template:Harvtxt argues that the sound system of Cypriot Arabic has been heavily influenced by that of Cypriot Greek. Cypriot Arabic has lost all emphatic consonants and stop-voicing opposition (though this is subject to debate in literature)Template:Sfnp—but retained gemination. Geminate voiceless stop consonants surface as aspirates.Template:Sfnp Furthermore, Old Arabic Template:IPAslink merged with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} became {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} merged with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.Template:Sfnp

The consonant phonemes of Cypriot Arabic, according to Template:Harvtxt, are {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Affricates {{#invoke:IPA|main}} occur as allophones of clusters {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Voiced stops occur as allophones of voiceless stops intervocalically and next to a sonorant or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.Template:Sfnp There are five vowel phonemes, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and two diphthongs, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.Template:Sfnp Phonological rules observed in Cypriot Arabic include:Template:Sfnp

Historical stop + stop clusters are dissimilated to fricative + stop.
{{#invoke:IPA|main}} are palatalized to {{#invoke:IPA|main}} before {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is fully assimilated.
{{#invoke:IPA|main}} between an obstruent and a vowel surfaces as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
An epenthetic stop occurs between a nasal and a continuant or sonorant. The place of articulation is inherited from the nasal before it and the voicing from the continuant or sonorant that follows.

Phenomena similar to the first three are also observed in Cypriot Greek.

Writing systemEdit

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.Template:Sfnp The Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research reported in 2006 that both the Greek and Latin script had been suggested for adoption. The Greek script is used for Cypriot Arabic in a Cypriot Arabic–Greek dictionary.Template:Sfnp

Alexander Borg, a linguist specialising in the language, created a Latin-based alphabet with elements from Maltese and Greek that the non-governmental organisation for the revitalisation of the language "Hki Fi Sanna" endorsed in 2007, and some "small texts" have apparently been translated into it.Template:Sfnp

The third row of this table represents their Perso-Arabic equivalents.

Cypriot Arabic Latin Alphabet
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
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
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 their IPA values, with some exceptions: Template:Columns-list

ExamplesEdit

Phrases<ref>{{#invoke: citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

lang}}	My name is Kumetto. What is your name?
lang}}	My name is Pavlo. What is your name? (fem.)
lang}}	What is his name?
lang}}	My father's name is Antoni
lang}}	What do eight and nine make?
lang}}	They make seventeen
lang}}	What day was yesterday? Yesterday was Thursday
lang}}	What day is tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday
lang}}	On Sunday we go to church
lang}}	I ate bread with olives, some honey and drank some cow's milk
lang}}	Yes
lang}}	No