아프리카ㆍ중동

Maronites are adherents of the Maronite Church which is Catholic with Eastern rite and its own patriarch and whose origin is generally traced back to St. Maron(d. 410). They have been concentrated around Mt. Lebanon. Though their liturgical language is Western Syriac and it has been their mother tongue for centuries, it was replaced by Arabic totally in everyday life and largely in liturgy. In history, while Maronites distanced themselves from Arabic, which was considered not Christian, they adopted Western languages such as Italian and French considering them more Christian. In addition to Arabic, modern Maronites widely use French and the usage of English is increasing, but not replacing French, but rather adding to it. This article examines languages used by Maronites in history, by contemporary Maronites in Lebanon, and the meaning of language usage in relation to their identity with empirical survey results.