Arabic, Cypriot Spoken

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A language of Cyprus

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

9,760 (2013 UNSD).

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

7 (Shifting).

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

A member of macrolanguage Arabic [ara].

Language Use

Adults only. Shifting to Greek [ell] (Walter 2020). Also use Standard Arabic [arb]. No diglossia with Standard Arabic [arb]. Also use Turkish [tur].

Language Development

Dictionary. Grammar. Revitalization effort producing written materials.

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.