The Arabic Language

L’Orizzont
, 9 May 1990)
1.
 Is-sitwazzjoni tan-nuqqas ta
’
 ilma qegħda 
dejjem tiggrava.
1. The situation of the deficit of 
water is becoming graver all the 
time.
2.
 Issa qegħdin jintlaqtu wkoll postijiet li 
rari kienu jkunu ffaċċjati bi problema ta
’
 
nuqqas ta
’
 ilma
.
2. Now they are confronted with it 
in all places that were rarely faced 
with the problem of a deficit of 
water.
3.
 Qed tikber ukoll il-pressjoni fuq 
it-Taqsima tal-Bowsers tad-Dipartiment 
ta
’
 l-Ilma
.
3. The pressure is becoming greater 
on the Bowsers Section of the 
Department of Water.
4.
 Minkejja li għandhom erba
’
 linji 
tat-telefon, tlieta minnhom diretti, aktar 
iva milli le ssibhom 
‘
engaged’ – iċċempel 
meta ċċempel
.
4. Although they have four telephone 
lines, three of them direct, more 
often than not you find them 
engaged – it rings when you ring.
15.3 Cypriot Maronite Arabic
Cypriot Maronite Arabic is the home language of a small community of the village of 
Kormakiti (Greek: Kormakítis) in north-west Cyprus. The presence of this Maronite 
community on the island dates back to the period between the ninth and twelfth 

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The Arabic Language
centuries. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, most of the inhabitants of 
this community spread over the island, leaving behind in Kormakiti only about 165 
people (UN estimate of 2001); since 2003, contact between the Maronites of both 
parts of the island has become easier. Of the 4,800 Maronites in Cyprus, they are 
the only ones bilingual in Greek and Arabic. Because of its peculiarities and in spite 
of the small size of the community, Cypriot Maronite Arabic is of great importance 
for the historical study of the Syrian and Mesopotamian dialects. Most of its traits 
are shared with the sedentary dialects of Greater Syria, for instance, the verbal 
marker for the non-past 
p(i)
, which goes back to the common Syro-Lebanese 
bi-
. 
Borg (1985) also mentions a large number of common features between Cypriot 
Arabic and the so-called 
qǝltu
dialects of the Mesopotamian group, for instance, 
the future marker 
tta-
(< Classical Arabic 
ḥattā
), which is also used as a future 
marker in the Anatolian 
qǝltu
dialects, and the past marker 
kan-
. According to him, 
these common features go back to a period in which there was a dialect continuum 
between the Mesopotamian dialects and the Syrian dialect area.
Three features lend the Cypriot Arabic dialect its ‘exotic’ character: the 
development of the Arabic stops; the reduction in morphological patterns; and 
the presence of numerous Greek loans. Probably under the influence of Greek 
phonology, the opposition voiced–voiceless has disappeared in the stops in this 
dialect. The realisation of these merged phonemes depends on the environment: 
they are realised as voiced stops between vowels, but as voiceless stops at the 
end of a word, for example, [kidep], phonologically /kitep/, from Classical 
kataba
. 
Before another stop, stops become spirants, for example, 
ḫtuft
< 
ktupt
‘I have 
written’, 
paḫtop
from 
p-aktop
‘I am writing’. In a cluster of three stops, the middle 
one is deleted, for example, 
pkyaḫpu
< 
p-yaktpu
< 
bi-yaktubu
‘they are writing’. This 
form also illustrates another instance of Greek influence, the insertion of 
k
before 
y
, as in 
pkyut
< 
buyūt
‘houses’. Cypriot Arabic has lost the emphatic consonants, 
but two of the interdentals have been preserved: 
ṯ
as in 
ṯawp
< 
ṯawb
‘cloth’, and 
ḏ
going back to Classical 
ḍ
and 
ḏ̣
as in 
ḏahr
< 
ḏ̣
ahr
‘back’. But the original voiced 
interdental 
ḏ
has become 
d
/
t
, as in 
tapaḫ
< 
ḏabaḥ
‘to slaughter’.
The number of plural nominal patterns has been reduced drastically; there 
are only five patterns corresponding to the broken patterns of the regular Arabic 
dialects. The ending 
-at
has to a large degree replaced the various patterns, for 
example, 
patn
, plural 
patnat
‘belly’, 
moḫḫ
, plural 
moḫḫat
‘head’. It even appears 
as an ending for historical plurals, for example, 
ḫumat
< 
*luḥūmāt
‘kinds of meat’ 
(Classical 
luḥūm
) and 
ḫpurat
‘graves’ (Classical 
qubūr
, with spirantisation of the 
q
before a second stop). The genitive exponent is 
tel
(masculine), 
šayt
(feminine), 
šat
(plural).
Greek loans cover a large part of not only the official, but also of the everyday 
vocabulary, for example, 
kiryakí
‘Sunday’, 
tiléfono
‘telephone’, 
pólemo
‘war’, 
ayróplana
‘aeroplane’, 
ḏískolo
‘difficult’, 
záḫari
‘sugar’, 
maṯités
‘pupil’, 
ístera
‘later’ 
and so on. As in similar linguistic situations, it is often difficult to determine 

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Arabic as a Minority Language 
281
whether we are dealing with code-switching or with real loans. This is particu-
larly complicated when inflected verbal forms are borrowed from Greek, as in (1):
(1) 
w-anankástika 
ta-ḫoṭṭ
 
and-to.be.forced.1s
 
COMPL-put.IMPERF.1s
‘and I had to put’
In this sentence 
w- 
and 
ta-ḫoṭṭ 
are Arabic, and 
anankástika 
‘I was forced’ is an 
inflected Greek verb (Borg 1985: 182). Code-switching is clearly not the case with 
some of the functional words that have been borrowed, such as 
kaṯe
‘each’, as 
in 
kaṯe-veḫen
‘everyone’ (< Greek 
kathe
+ Arabic 
wāḥid
), and suffixes such as the 
diminutive in 
paytui
‘little house’ (< Arabic 
bayt
+ Greek suffix 
-oudhi
). 
Text Cypriot Arabic (after Borg 1985: 165)
1.
 eḫen šípp ámma piḫúpp il-éḫte pínt, 
piváddi l-éḫlu u t-tatátu žump il-éḫla 
u kyitilpúa
1. A youth when he falls in love with 
a girl, sends his parents and his 
god-father to her parents and they 
ask for her hand.
2.
 an p-pínt u l-éḫl piritúḫ, tóte š-šípp 
kyítlop príka miḫ páyt ḫkáli u flús
2. If the girl and the parents want him, 
then the youth requests a dowry, 
such as a house, land and money.
3.
 an má-liḫon aš ma kyítlop, tóte 
l-iproksenyá kyintḫírpu
3. If they do not have what he requests, 
then they break off the engagement.
4.
 an piḫúppa ma kálpu, pkyaḫúta ma áš 
ma kyatúa éḫla
4. If he loves her with his heart, he 
takes her whatever her parents give.
5.
 piḫóttu aška zmán kyaʿatézzu pšan 
tentžáwzu, u ḫost áḏa l-izmán, 
pitáylpu l-páyt u š-šáya tel-ʿarús, 
w-ístera pitáylpu l-iḫár tel-ʿórs
5. They determine how much time they 
need to get married and during this 
time they prepare the house and the 
things of the bride and then they 
prepare the date of the wedding.