Του Αντώνη Κασάπη
The language spoken at Kormakitis even today, albeit unfortuanately only by the older people, known as Cyprus Maronite Arabic, or Sanna, has many similarities with the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of the phrases of the New Testament which remained in the original language in which they were spoken, even if the New Testament was written in Greek, are still spoken at Kormakitis, either exactly the same, or with minor differences.
A well known such satement which Jesus said is “Talitha Koumi”.(Mark 5:41). This is a two word phrase in Syriac Aramaic, meining “Little girl, arise”. The first one of these two words, “talitha” is not used in Sanna today. The second one “koumi”is used in exactly the same way.
Another famous phrase which Jesus said before his death on the cross and which remained in his original language is ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:45 – 46,).The word “sabachtani” is similar to the Sanna word “vachti” which means “I am alone”.
Other New Testament Aramaic phrases which are very similar to the words used in Sanna are:
Ephphatha meaning “Be opened.” (Mark 7:34)
Abba meaning “Father” (Mark 14:36)
Rabbouni meaning “teacher” (John 20:16)
Hosanna meaning “O Lord, save us.” (Mark 11:9)
The similarity of the first three of the above phrases are obvious to the speakers of Sanna, even the not proficient ones like yours truly.
The last one may not be so obvious to most Sanna speakers, although we all know it in Greek (Ωσαννά). The people of Kormakitis call Palm Sunday in Sanna “Shaanine”. This word comes directly from the Aramaic word “Hosanna” which means “saviour”.
This neglected, mocked and despised language that one lonely village in Cyprus spoke for centuries is in fact descending from the language that our Lord, Jesus Himself spoke.
In Sanna the words” Messiah Lord” are “Msih Rabbi” and in Greek ” Χριστός Κύριος” ..
Many students of linguistics have studied Sanna. One of them, a well known Professor of Linguistics, who studied Sanna for many years, described it as a “treasure”. I wish we, the descendants of the people who spoke this language, and our Government, the Government of Cyprus, also believed this and acted accordingly, so as to save this treasure for the future generations.
Rabbi te kun macana!