Cyprus-Forum.com

[Omer Seyhan]

For a long time Cyprus was the principal colony of the Phoenicians. A strong hold, many Phoenicians lived in Cyprus. The Phoenicians spoke the Phoenician language, which belongs to the group of Canaanite languages in the Semitic language family. It is according to one linguist I spoke to, close enough to Aramaic that it was mutually intelligible. As we know Aramaic was the language of Jesus of Nazareth. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of their alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later passed it on to the Romans and Etruscans.
Spencer Wells of the Genographic Project has conducted genetic studies that demonstrate that male populations of Lebanon, Malta, Cyprus, and other areas settled by Phoenicians, share a common J2 chromosome. In 2004, two Harvard University educated geneticists and leading scientists of the National Geographic Genographic Project, Dr. Pierre Zalloua and Dr. Spencer Wells identified "the haplogroup of the Phoenicians as haplogroup J2, with avenues open for future research. J2 was present in 21% of their Maltese sample, 36.9% of their sample from Cyprus, and 45-60% Lebanese sample.

By contrast, male populations in areas associated with Greek / Minoan or with the Sea People settlement have completely different genetic markers. This implies that Minoans and Sea Peoples probably did not have ancestral relation with the Phoenicians and that many Cypriots do. We are mostly Semites......cousins of the Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians.




Arab or Cypriot?