Bilun Gunes
Kormakitis Centre for Cooperation hosted the Sanna Camp with the attendance of 85 children this year.
Sanna is a Cypriot Arabic language only spoken by the Maronite community in Kormakitis. The language arrived on the island in waves from the seventh to the twelfth century. Previously only a spoken language doomed to perish, Sanna is now reviving in the hands of volunteers and academics.
Uniqueness of the language lies in its history and development. Differing from other Arabic varieties as it has been separated from its origin, it is in use on the island for more than twelve centuries. Sanna has been listed as a severely endangered language according to UNESCO’s Red book of endangered languages.
Since its recognition as a minority language of Cyprus, Sanna is receiving a written form, carefully developed by scientists with the aid of existing native speakers and being used to produce songs, poetry, and literature for the first time.
Following the construction of the centre in Kormakitis, Sanna Summer Camps have found a functioning space as opposed to relying solely on the hospitality and availability of the villagers to take place among many other multi-communal activities.
Children aged from 4 to 18 attended the camp to learn how to write in a language they may only have heard from their grand-parents.
The activities were carried out in cooperation with the Maronite School Foundation, the office of the Maronite Representative in Parliament, the Ministry of Education (South), and the University of Cyprus.
Sanna Camps provide Maronite children an opportunity to connect with their culture and heritage whilst learning the language from native speakers.
The event ended with a brilliant and emotional adaptation of a Greek song, which sent the message that Sanna’s learning must continue, so that it can be preserved and not lost.
Voice Cyprus News had the opportunity to witness the closing ceremony of Sanna Camp, to witness the performances put on by the children and to do interviews.
Moussas “ We’ve worked for many years to make the project possible”
Yiannakis Moussas Maronite Community Representative of the Parliament, said that they have worked for many years to make the project possible.
“Kids now have their own place, their own modern facilities, they are spending more time with each other” he said.
He stated that the Sanna Camp provides the opportunity to educate the kids on the language, traditions, and the history of their community.
“Sanna’s characteristics indicate the origins of the Maronites. Historically we come from the mountains of Lebanon 12 centuries ago, then a part of greater Syria. And the Arabic origin is evident in the language of Sanna” he said.
Armostis “Our goal is to have more people being able to speak Sanna”
Spyros Armostis Assistant Professor in Linguistics, from University of Cyprus has been working on the project on the documentation and revitalisation of Cypriot Arabic since 2013.
“I saw a call for a phonetician, that’s my area of specialisation, to transcribe audio recordings of interviews of speakers of Cypriot Arabic. And even though I knew nothing about Arabic in general, I decided to take it on. And I was glad I did it, because it opened a whole new aspect of Cyprus for me” he said .
He shared his experience about the language by explaining “ I stepped on the shoulders of giants, as we say. We based the program on the alphabet proposed by Linguist Alexander Borg, which we modified with his permission and gave orthographic rules and names for the letters.
The letters had no names previously. It’s been very important for me because it was the very first step in being able to produce teaching materials, to be able to write down lesson plans in Cypriot Arabic.
It gave us the opportunity to do more with it. As I like to say, it gives it visibility, literally and metaphorically, visibility to the language. When you see it, it’s there.”
He stated that the most challenging aspect of graphitisation of Sanna was to decide what’s important to keep in the alphabet and what’s redundant.
“There were some letters that were not really useful, so we had to make the decision of getting rid of them to make it easier for the native speakers. We had an experimental approach to it. We tried it out with native speakers of Cypriot Arabic, and we got their feedback, and we actually changed some of our proposals in the process.
The names were also a bit hard to decide. We have letters from the Roman script, including characters from the Turkish and the Greek alphabets. We decided to go mainly with Arabic names, with some exceptions” he explained.
He also mentioned the stage of development of the language.
“With regards to creating materials, we are currently trying to finalise the A1 level for adult learners. We have the A1 level for young learners, and are trying to produce the A2 level for them.
With these next steps, we really want to proceed with the construction of the language, because there is no grammar written down. We are discovering as we go. The next steps would be to bring more visibility to the language as much as we can. Our goal is to have more people being able to speak it”.
Skoullos “We never thought about Sanna as a cultural treasure”
Antonis Skoullos, President of Kormakitis Centre for Cooperation, mentioned that the Sanna Camp has been happening for the past 15 years.
“The Centre for Cooperation has been home to it for the past two years since its opening. Children get to meet with the native speakers of Sanna here and learn about their language.
This centre was originally established with three main objectives; to become an educational centre of the inhabitants of Kormakitis, to become the elementary school of Kormakitis, and to offer camping facilities for all the Cypriots to endorse ideas of peace and reconciling, getting together. Here we host events, seminars, camps, and workshops serving the same purpose; forgiveness and culture” he said.
Sanna is his native language and later on he learned Greek at school.
“Prior to 2008 Sanna was only a spoken language, there was nothing in writing so we were losing words year after year. We never thought about it as a cultural treasure until it was discovered by the academia. Linguists from abroad awakened us to the fact there is something interesting, a unique heritage here to protect.
Alexander Borg came to Cyprus and visited Kormakitis in the 1970s, then published his first book describing the linguistic structure of Sanna. That book gained interest internationally, enabling preservation works to be carried out with the recognition of the EU. It showed us that if you don’t do something about it, you can never declare it will not disappear” he said.
Aristotelous “By preserving the language, you come closer to the tradition”
Anna Aristotelous Adviser and Head of Humanitarian Affairs thinks the program is quite important because it preserves the language and the language is the centre of civilization for each community.
“By preserving the language, you come closer to the tradition, to the values and principles of your community and it’s very important for children to learn their native language. They are the guardians of civilization and the language is a valuable asset for Cyprus. It was very moving to see all this effort from young children and to participate in summer schools. Instead of going for a vacation, they prefer to come to this centre to learn their language. It shows how they grow up and their family values as well” she said.
She stated that the program had a high percentage of involvement of children from all ages. She believes that this is a good start in terms of participation.
“Their teachers who teach in Maronite schools also play an important role to encourage children and their families. It is very moving, the fact that the teachers allocate their personal time in the summer to teach. It shows their passion that they want to do this. It’s not a job, it’s a service.”
Vasili “There are less than a thousand native speakers right now”
Native Speaker and Volunteering Tutor, Marios Vasili , “San’ means the tongue in Cypriot Maronite Arabic, and ‘na’ means ‘our’. Sanna, our language was following a path to its death” he explained. He said the language was mainly an oral language only and it passed down from great great grandparents to them, generation to generation only in spoken form.
“Kormakitis is the homeland of all Maronites in Cyprus. We only come here to Sanna Camp for a week. A week’s time is not enough to keep a language surviving. The children need to spend more time in Kormakitis, surrounded by the native speakers to learn the language. Some of these kids may only remember hearing this language from their grandparents, as their parents may have never needed to use Sanna in their daily lives. We are talking about reviving a language for a generation whose parents already forgot to speak it” he said.
He informed that the grade in which people are competent in Sanna varies, especially low among those who live outside of Kormakitis.
“We need to find ways to motivate people to come to the village. Motives could be delivered in many ways, for example creating opportunities for employment, providing areas for settlement” he added. He said that he observed people use some basic words in Sanna when they visit Kormakitis which gives the sense that there is a chance to successfully increase the number of speakers.
“There are less than a thousand native speakers right now, and that number will only get lower if we do not act on it. It would be a great motivation for the younger generation, if they can learn Sanna and receive credits in their school the same way they would receive credits for learning another language” he said.
He explained that the language in its original form was written in Karshuni, mainly like Arabic. However it was difficult to introduce to the speakers, adapting the Latin Alphabet made it much easier.
“We are in a race to save the vocabulary that is slowly disappearing from our language with the loss of our elders” he added.
Pariza “I like to speak it, it is a part of me”
Student Ioanna Pariza was six years old when she was first introduced to Sanna in education. She recalled hearing her grandparents speaking the language earlier in her childhood.
“It was more like a game, learning a new alphabet. The new rules of writing and the grammar were tricky at first. But I knew my learning of Sanna would make my grandparents happy, so that made me happy too” she said.
The most interesting thing that surprised her is the similarities to the Greek vocabulary.
“Because there are many letters that are similar and it was easier for me to learn since it was Greek and also English. And maybe some Turkish, but that didn’t, I didn’t mind that as much. And it was easy because I knew English from a really young age. And I also know Greek, so it was not that hard. And thinking of how the word is like, how it is listened to, and writing, it was not hard. You adapt easily”.
Some of her friends in Nicosia, they have no idea what Sanna is.
“That’s very strange. But they don’t have to, I like to speak it, it is a part of me. Back at home when my father speaks to my grandma on the phone, you won’t hear Greek. My friends get very surprised when they come over and hear it. A month ago I brought my best friend here in Kormakitis and I took her down to the village and all she heard was Sanna and she got so intrigued that she was like next year I’m coming here to learn Sanna. That made me very happy” she said.
She believes that there is a big difference in how young kids and youngsters perceive the language.
She mentioned prior to learning Sanna her feelings towards it were different too.
“I attended the lectures and seminars, wanting to save what I know from parents, grandparents, and great great grandparents. But I don’t think it is seen in the same way as the older generation. It is not a popular language, or spoken widely like French or Arabic. That’s okay. I find it cool since it is unique. Everyone looks for ways in which they are unique and Sanna makes up a big part of who I am. I have fond memories of going to school in Nicosia on Sundays and learning Sanna. Our teacher Elias always made it fun, it was such a pleasure to learn it. My friends from those lessons are now like my family. My whole experience of it made me love this language even more.
I really hope to become one of these people who are involved because the respect I have for them is immense. They have done so much for us. This building itself is like a five-star hotel. From the food we eat to activities we do, they have put so much time and effort into our learning, I hope to be a part of it”.
Voice Cprus News-2024
