Only 900 speakers of the Sanna language remain. Now Cyprus' Maronites are mounting a comeback

KORMAKITIS, Cyprus (AP) — Ash dangled precariously from Iosif Skordis' cigarette as he reminisced with fellow villagers in a language on the edge of extinction, one that partly traces its roots to the language Jesus Christ once spoke.

The 97-year-old Skordis is one of only 900 people in the world who speak Cypriot Maronite Arabic, or Sanna. Today, his village of Kormakitis is the last bastion of a language once spoken by tens of thousands of people across dozens of villages.

The tongue, an offshoot of Syrian Arabic that has absorbed some Greek, has been passed from generation to generation in this windswept community in Cyprus. Until less than two decades ago, there was no written script, or even an alphabet, since parents transmitted it to children in conversation. Only a handful of people are trained to teach it.

Sanna is at risk of disappearing, according to the Council of Europe’s minority language experts. One Indigenous language dies every two weeks, the United Nations estimates, diminishing the tapestry of human knowledge one strand at a time.

But the 7,500-strong Maronite community in Cyprus is pushing back. With help from the Cypriot government and the European Union, it has built schools, created a Sanna alphabet to publish textbooks and begun classes to keep the language alive and thriving.

“Sanna … is undoubtedly one of the most distinguishing features of our cultural identity,” said Yiannakis Moussas, the Maronite community’s representative in the Cypriot legislature. He spoke in the Kormakitis coffeehouse adorned with soccer trophies and banners emblazoned with a Lebanese cedar.

“And it’s striking evidence of our heritage. The fact that we speak a kind of Arabic over so many centuries makes it clear that we descend from areas of Syria and Lebanon.”

The language was brought to Cyprus by waves of Arab Christians fleeing persecution by invading Arab Muslim fighters in what is now Syria, Lebanon and Israel, starting as early as the 8th century.

Sanna at its root is a semitic language that, unlike other Arabic dialects, contains traces of the Aramaic that was spoken by populations prior to the Arab invasion of the Levant, according to University of Cyprus linguistics professor Marilena Kariolemou, who leads the team responsible for the language’s revitalization.

That’s because the Maronite community in Cyprus was isolated from other Arabic-speaking populations.

But as Maronites increasingly interacted with the island’s majority Greek-speaking population and became bilingual, Sanna evolved to incorporate several Greek words, adding to its uniqueness among the many Arabic dialects.

According to Kariolemou, Sanna contains five vowels similar to Greek and another three similar to Aramaic, while consonants whose sounds are formed in the back of the throat have diminished, likely because of the Greek influence. Sanna also adopted Greek syntax, she said.

Until the mid-1970s, the Maronite community was largely centered around four villages: Asomatos, Ayia Marina, Karpasia and Kormakitis as the cultural center.

But the 1974 Turkish invasion that split Cyprus into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south, where the internationally recognized government is based, saw most Maronites dispersed throughout the south.

Asomatos and Ayia Marina are empty of Maronite inhabitants and are now Turkish army camps.

Moussas, the community representative, said the consequences of 1974 were “catastrophic” for the Maronites as they gravitated toward the island’s major cities, putting their culture and language at risk as children attended Greek-speaking schools and intermarriage with Greek Cypriots increased.

It’s said that currently, only one in five Maronite marriages are between members of the community.

That left Kormakitis as the linguistic “hive” for Cypriot Maronite Arabic, only spoken by residents over 50, according to retired teacher Ilias Zonias. Born in Kormakitis, Zonias is the only native Sanna speaker qualified to teach the language.

Kormakitis was a closed society in which residents spoke Sanna, while their kids went to school not knowing Greek. That’s how the language was preserved, Zonias said.

Still, speakers after 1974 began to dwindle until around the turn of the millennium, when the Maronite community with the help of the Cypriot government increased efforts to save the language.

Cyprus’ 2004 membership in the EU was a milestone for Sanna as the bloc poured resources into safeguarding Indigenous minority languages, a designation that Cypriot authorities had bestowed.

Kariolemou said her team in 2013 set up a recorded archive of spoken Sanna, some 280 hours long, for further study.

A 27-letter alphabet was created in mostly Latin characters, thanks mainly to the work of linguist Alexander Borg. Grammar was formulated and refined, enabling the publication of books for teaching Sanna.

Language courses are in their early stages, Skordis said, with about 100 children and adults in classes in Kormakitis and the Saint Maronas primary school in Lakatamia, a suburb of Nicosia, the country's capital. A summer language camp for children and adults in Kormakitis has also been created.

An initiative is underway for native-born speakers — primarily Kormakitis residents — to learn how to teach Sanna.

At Ayios Maronas primary school, 20 kindergarten-age children are learning the language with books containing QR codes that can be scanned so students can follow an audio adaptation on school-provided tablets.

But for Sanna to have a real future, there is no substitute for young families returning in large numbers to Kormakitis, where the language can be taught in the newly built, EU-funded school, Moussas said.

Community leaders, however, aren’t pleased with the low number of people expressing interest. Moussas said community leaders and the Cypriot government are looking into offering incentives, primarily to make it easier to find housing.

For Zonias, keeping the language alive for the ages would be the crowning achievement of his career.

“I don’t want to be the last teacher of Sanna,” he said.

Catholic Maronite faithful pass under the icon of St. George in an act of supplication during a traditional procession on the saint's Feast Day outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

St. George Church in the Maronite village of of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A man sits outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A Vatican flag waves as the worshippers follow a traditional procession on the Feast Day of St. George outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A priest swings a senser at an icon of St. George during a traditional procession on the saint's Feast Day outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Catholic Maronite faithful pass under the icon of St. George in an act of supplication during a traditional procession on the saint's Feast Day outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Worshippers follow a traditional procession on the Feast Day of St. George outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Faithful follow a traditional procession on the Feast Day of St. George in St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Maronite Catholic faithful are silhouetted against the sunlit wall of St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Maronite Catholic nuns recite hymns during a service in outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Maronite Catholic faithful attend a service on the Feast Day of St. George in St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Maronite Catholic faithful attend a service on the Feast Day of St. George in St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Maronite Catholic faithful bring their hands together in prayer during a service in outside St. George Church in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A painting of St. George hangs on the wall of St. George Church as the faithful attend a service, in the Maronite village of Kormakitis in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided Cyprus on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

HONG KONG (AP) — Former executives of a now-defunct, pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong who were convicted under a national security law pleaded for lighter sentences Tuesday in a landmark case widely seen as a barometer of media freedom in a city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia.

The former journalists pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. They admitted to the prosecution's charge that said they conspired with their ex-boss and onetime media mogul Jimmy Lai to request foreign sanctions, blockades or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

Lai, the Apple Daily founder who pleaded not guilty in the case, was convicted in December. The verdict raised concerns about the city's declining press freedom and drew criticism from foreign governments.

But the government insists the case has nothing to do with media freedom, saying the defendants used news reporting as a pretext for years to commit acts that harmed China and Hong Kong.

Their sentences are expected to be handed down at a later date.

Six Apple Daily executives were convicted in Lai's case: publisher Cheung Kim-hung; associate publisher Chan Pui-man; editor-in-chief Ryan Law; executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung; executive editor-in-chief responsible for English news Fung Wai-kong; and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee. Some of them served as prosecution witnesses during the 156-day trial.

A conviction on the collusion charge carries a sentence ranging from three years to life in prison. But a guilty plea can result in a sentence reduction. Under the security law, a reduced penalty may be granted to those who report on offenses committed by others.

Chan's lawyer, Marco Li, said if the judges decided to place his client in the upper sentencing band, he suggested the starting point should be 10 years, given her limited role. Citing factors including her timely plea and assistance to the prosecution, he asked for her sentence to be halved.

Li said Chan, who started working at Apple Daily in 1996, regretted not resisting even more firmly when matters arose that made her uncomfortable. But according to her mitigation letter, Chan couldn't leave her beloved job casually at that time because she was suffering serious health issues and was under financial burden.

Chung Pui-kuen, Chan's husband and a former top editor of the now-shuttered Stand News, was among those in the public gallery. He was sentenced to 21 months in jail in a separate sedition case.

Lai founded Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule. It attracted a strong following with its sometimes sensational reports, investigative scoops and eventual short animated video reports. Being openly critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, the newspaper was well-received among pro-democracy readers.

During Hong Kong's massive anti-government protests in 2019, Apple Daily ran articles sympathetic to protesters and supportive of the pro-democracy movement that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets.

After Beijing imposed the security law to quell the protests, Lai was one of the first prominent figures to be arrested. Within a year, Apple Daily's former executives also were arrested. The prosecutions, asset freeze and police raids forced the newspaper's closure in June 2021. Its final edition sold a million copies.

In their December verdict, the three government-appointed judges said Lai had used Apple Daily as a platform for spreading his political ideas and implementing his political agenda before and after the introduction of the security law.

The judges on Monday heard arguments about the sentencing of Lai, Cheung and two other non-Apple Daily activists involved in the former publisher’s case.

When Lai entered the courtroom Tuesday, he smiled at people sitting in the public gallery as a supporter formed a heart shape with her hands.

FILE - In this June 23, 2021, file photo, Lam Man-chung, left, executive editor-in-Chief of Apple Daily and Chan Pui-man, center, associate publisher of Apple Daily gesture at the headquarters before the newspaper stop publishing in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - Chan Pui-man, associate publisher of Apple Daily newspaper walks out from a court in Hong Kong, June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung), File)