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Arabic, Cypriot Spoken

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A language of Cyprus

ISO 639-3
acy
Alternate Names
Cypriot Maronite Arabic, Kormakiti, Maronite
Autonym
Sanna
Population

9,760 (2013 UNSD). Ethnic population: 6,000. 140 Maronites in Kormatiki, 80 to 100 in Limassol, the rest in the Maronite community in Nicosia.

Location

Kyrenia district: north shore; Limassol district: south shore; Lefkosia district: Kormakiti, Nicosia city, and Peristonem; several Maronite mountain villages. Mainly urban communities.

Language Maps
Language Status

8a (Moribund).

Classification
Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
Dialects

A member of macrolanguage Arabic [ara].

Language Use

Revitalization effort producing written materials. All older than 30 years. 140 mainly older adults in Kormatiki. Also use Greek [ell], Turkish [tur]. Also use Standard Arabic [arb]. No diglossia with Standard Arabic [arb].

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Arabic, Cypriot Spoken
Writing

Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab], no longer in use. Greek script [Grek], no longer in use. Latin script [Latn], revitalization efforts in one town.

Other Comments

A hybrid language with roots in the Arabic of both Anatolia and Levant. Many borrowings from Syriac [syc] and Greek [ell]. Ethnonym: Maronites. Christian.

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