About Sanna
The language of the Maronites of Cyprus — centuries of history, few speakers, a great struggle
Kormakitis in Pictures
Kormakitis sits on the north-western coast of Cyprus, gathered around the great church of Saint George (Ágios Geórgios). It is the heart of the Maronite community and the last place where Sanna is still heard in daily life.
Photographs © their respective authors, used with attribution. Panorama by Mike Finn (Flickr); church of Saint George by HFrankDM (PeakVisor).
Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA / Sanna): A Summary
Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA), known by its speakers as Sanna, is the traditional language of the Maronite community of Cyprus. It is one of the world’s most endangered languages and is classified by UNESCO as Severely Endangered.
Sanna developed from medieval Arabic brought to Cyprus by Maronite settlers who migrated from Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land between the 8th and 13th centuries. Although fundamentally an Arabic language, it has evolved in relative isolation for centuries and preserves many Aramaic (Syriac) influences through the Maronite liturgy and religious tradition, while also incorporating extensive vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical features from Cypriot Greek. This unique blend makes CMA one of the most distinctive members of the Arabic language family.
For centuries, Sanna was spoken in several Maronite villages, but today it survives primarily in Kormakitis, the only village where it remained the everyday community language. Following the displacement of the Maronite population after the events of 1974, most families settled in southern Cyprus, and transmission of the language from parents to children largely ceased.
Recognising its unique linguistic and cultural value, the Republic of Cyprus officially recognised Cypriot Maronite Arabic as a Minority Language in 2008 under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This led to the creation of a Committee of Experts and the development of policies aimed at safeguarding and revitalising the language.
In 2009, the Sanna Project established the Payt el Sanna (House of Sanna), a cultural and language centre dedicated to language revitalisation. Its initiatives included preschool “Language Nests,” theatre and music programmes, language immersion activities, educational materials, and the first multimedia Greek–CMA dictionary, while drawing inspiration from the successful revitalisation efforts of the Sámi people of Norway.
Despite these efforts, Sanna remains critically endangered. Surveys showed that almost no fluent speakers were under the age of 25, indicating that natural intergenerational transmission had effectively stopped. Experts emphasise that the language can only survive through coordinated action involving families, schools, cultural institutions, community organisations and government support.
Today, Cypriot Maronite Arabic is far more than an endangered language. It is a living symbol of the Maronite heritage of Cyprus, reflecting centuries of interaction between Arabic, Aramaic (Syriac), Greek and Mediterranean cultures. Preserving Sanna means safeguarding a unique linguistic tradition, an irreplaceable cultural identity, and an important part of Cyprus’s multicultural history for future generations.
Father Antonios Georgiou Fragkiskou
known affectionately as Father Antonakis
A Maronite priest of Cyprus, Father Fragkiskou was one of the most important documenters of Cypriot Maronite Arabic, the language its speakers call Sanna. Deeply rooted in the Kormakitis community, he devoted much of his life to recording a language that had survived for centuries almost entirely by word of mouth.
His Λεξικό της αραβικής διαλέκτου του Κορμακίτη (Dictionary of the Arabic Dialect of Kormakitis), published in Nicosia in 2000, was among the first attempts to set the vocabulary of Sanna down in writing, using the Greek script familiar to the community. He followed it in 2007 with a Grammar of the same language, describing the sounds, forms and structures that make Sanna so distinct from other varieties of Arabic. He also wrote poetry in Sanna, published in Greek script with Greek translations, and contributed the Arabic-language column of the Maronite press.
Working before any standardised alphabet existed, Father Fragkiskou preserved thousands of words and expressions that might otherwise have been lost. His dictionary forms the foundation of the entries collected here, and the debt owed to his patient scholarship is difficult to overstate. His memory endures in every word of Sanna still spoken today. We are deeply grateful to his family for their generous permission to digitise his work, without which this dictionary would not exist.
What is Sanna?
Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA), known to its speakers as Sanna (from san: language), is an Arabic language with approximately one thousand years of uninterrupted presence on Cyprus. It belongs to the Levantine Arabic group but evolved into an entirely unique linguistic entity through centuries of contact with Greek, Latin, Turkish, and Italian.
Today, Sanna is recognised by UNESCO as a critically endangered language. Fewer than 1,000 people actively speak it, mainly in the villages of Kormakitis, Asomatos, Karpasha, and Karpasia in northern Cyprus — territories under Turkish occupation since 1974.
History
The Maronites settled in Cyprus from Lebanon and Syria primarily between the 7th and 12th centuries. They brought with them Arabic dialects which, isolated from mainstream Arabic, began to evolve independently.
Through centuries of coexistence with Greek-speaking Cypriots, Sanna absorbed a vast number of Greek words, phonological features, and grammatical structures, becoming a linguistically unique contact language.
The 1974 invasion dealt a heavy blow: Maronite communities were cut off, younger generations were forced to migrate, and intergenerational transmission of the language was drastically disrupted.
Writing and Orthography
Sanna historically had no written tradition. Today, Greek script is most commonly used (as in this dictionary). The Borg Latin-based system uses special characters for Arabic sounds not found in Greek or English:
| Letter | Sound | CMA example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | Voiced dental fricative (ð) | arb | earth |
| ġ | Pharyngeal fricative (ɣ) | ġasil | bath |
| ħ | Voiceless pharyngeal fricative (ħ) | ħut | hand |
| x | Velar fricative (x) | xbiz | bread |
| š | Sibilant (ʃ, “sh”) | šams | sun |
Linguistic Features
- Greek lexical influence: Over 50% of vocabulary derives from Greek or Cypriot Greek.
- Verbal prefixes: Verbs carry the prefix p- in the present tense and kount- in the imperfect — unique among Arabic dialects.
- Multilingual influence: Loanwords from Ottoman Turkish, Italian, and French are visible throughout.
- Stress system: The stress pattern has been significantly influenced by Greek.
News & Developments
First Digital CMA Dictionary
The first digital Cypriot Maronite Arabic dictionary was published, with over 2,100 entries, grammatical notes, and usage examples.
Hki Fi Sanna — “Speak Our Language”
The NGO Hki Fi Sanna continues active revitalisation programmes through a digital archive of speakers, educational materials, and the “Sanna Stories — Stories of an Endangered Language” YouTube channel.
European Recognition
CMA is officially recognised as a minority language of the Republic of Cyprus under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Teaching & Documentation
The University of Cyprus and the University of Nicosia continue research and educational programmes for the documentation and teaching of Sanna.