Marilena Karyolemou* A story at the periphery: Documenting, standardising and reviving Cypriot Arabic https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2019-2045 Abstract: The aim of this article is to present the current sociolinguistic situation of the Cypriot Maronite community and report on recent efforts to revitalize its language, Cypriot Arabic or Sanna. After a brief historical account, the article focuses on the sociodemographic and sociolinguistic characteristics of the com- munity, which has steadily declined ever since its establishment on the island of Cyprus in the seventh to eighth century AD. Finally, the article discusses the revitalization efforts undertaken since 2007 as well as recent political and social developments that (de)favour the process of revitalization. Keywords: language revival, Sanna, literacy, Cypriot Arabic 1 Introduction Maronite Arabs are one of the many Eastern Christian communities that devel- oped in the Middle East, Africa, Asia Minor, the Balkans and other nearby areas over a number of centuries. Cypriot Maronite Arabs are medieval refugees who travelled to Cyprus in successive waves from the seventh to the twelfth century in quest of a peaceful place to rebuild their lives (Hourani 1998, Hourani 2009). Unlike other medieval communities that gradually deserted the island (Grivaud 2000), the Maronites remained and very soon were firmly rooted on the island and organized as a community. Cypriot Maronite Arabs speak an Arabic vernacular that belongs to the group of “peripheral Arabic varieties” (Cohen 1973; Kaye et al. 1994; Borg 1985, Borg 2004; Roth 2006/2007; Akkuş 2018), that is, varieties that were taken from the Arab realm and relocated in a non-Arabic speaking setting, where they were influenced by non-Semitic languages. The Arabic vernacular of the Maronites established in Cyprus remained in close contact with Greek – and more specif- ically with Cypriot Greek – for more than twelve centuries, and has developed in a way that is clearly different from other Arabic varieties of the Levant (Roth 1975, Roth 1986, Roth 1996, Roth 2000, and Roth 2004; Borg 1985, Borg 2004). It *Corresponding author: Marilena Karyolemou, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, E-mail: makar@ucy.ac.cy IJSL 2019; 260: 1–14 Brought to you by | University of Cyprus Authenticated Download Date | 11/15/19 5:33 PM