Cyprus-Forum.com

[T_C]

It's as different as Cypriot Greek is to mainland Greek.

The mainlanders' Turkish sounds very "posh"...whereas the TC dialect is more like a slang version....

Think of the difference between English and Jamaican Patois..something like that....

[BC Numismatics]

Bill,Cypriots aren't Greeks anyway,which is why I say that their native language is called Cypriot Greek.You can get by living in Cyprus speaking nothing but English.

Here in New Zealand,the Maori language is taught in some schools,but not many speak either the dialect of the far north (which is used in schools),or any of the various local dialects,whose pronouciation differs from area to area.To me,English is the only language I need.

Aidan.

[denizaksulu]

Phoenix,here's a link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypriot_Turkish .

This is probably your native language; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypriot_Greek .

Aidan.

Thanks BCN, it looks like Cypriot Turkish is not as different to Turkish as some may like to make-believe

As far as I know, the Turkish taught in schools is the 'Official Turkish' language as approved by the Educational authorities in Turkey. It would be the Modern System brought in by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This new version came to Cyprus a few years after the 'Writing' and 'language' revolution in Turkey. Word endings were changed to adopt the 'Istanbul accent'. We used to make fun of our University Graduate TC cousins from Turkey. We thought their 'posh accents were quite ridiculous. They would immediately revert to Turkish Cypriot.

Some of the old people from the villages still use the old Ottoman version of the Cypriot Turkish dialect. There is an attempt on LTR to prevent the extinction of the Cypriot Dialect.

[Nikitas]

Deniz,

A parallel process has been going on regarding Greek language in Cyprus. I have been waging a one man campaign against the process of extinguishing local accents and dialects. The insistence on standardisation is robbing the language of its musicality.

The first victims in Greek modernisation were the double consonants, unless they are in word derived from ancient Greek, so the word for collars is koLara and not koLLara as it used to be, but, kolara was and is also the word for a big fat or sexy ass! The practice is carried to extremes by some so an Italian lady called Elizabetta is spelled and pronounced ElizabeTa and it sounds like shit. In such a climate you can imagine how the Cypriot dialect with its multidude of heavy Ts and Ps is regarded.

[phoenix]

It's as different as Cypriot Greek is to mainland Greek.

The mainlanders' Turkish sounds very "posh"...whereas the TC dialect is more like a slang version....

Think of the difference between English and Jamaican Patois..something like that....

We live in a really nice neighbourhood and everyone speaks very posh, yet less than a mile away they sound really "local", terrible dialect. It doesn't mean a thing T_C if it's JUST dialect.

I was referring to the similarity of the language as a whole. Compare the links BCN has posted. Cypriot Greek is far more complex when compared to Greek.

[BC Numismatics]

What is the Ottoman version of the Turkish Cypriot language? I didn't even know there was such a thing.

There's no way that the Cypriot Turkish language will become extinct,as it is spoken wherever a Turkish Cypriot community has settled,especially in Canada & Great Britain.We have very few Cypriots living in New Zealand.

Aidan.

[T_C]

Phoenix you sound like a typical Cypriot male...living in some fantasy world where you try to justify things to make yourself feel a bit better

"Cypriot Greek is far more complex when compared to Greek"...AND?!?!?

If it doesn't mean a thing if it's JUST a dialect then what are you trying to prove here?

Next you'll be telling us you're more worthy because the GC Wikipedia article has much more words and pictures than the TC one...

[denizaksulu]

What is the Ottoman version of the Turkish Cypriot language? I didn't even know there was such a thing.

There's no way that the Cypriot Turkish language will become extinct,as it is spoken wherever a Turkish Cypriot community has settled,especially in Canada & Great Britain.We have very few Cypriots living in New Zealand.

Aidan.

I was going to add that there are probably more TCs in the UK speaking the Cyprus dialect than in Cyprus.
The 'Ottoman' version is my grouping. At high school when we were learning the standardised Turkish, on returning to our villages we were attempting to teach our elders how to talk 'proper', as they say.

For example the oft quoted words , geleceng, gideceng instead of gelecekmisin, gidecekmisin. (are you going to come/are you going to go)

These are the Ottoman endings -ng (saghir nun) or dimunitive N.

After I discovered an Original Redhouse printed in Istanbul/Constantiniyye 1921, which had an explanation for the spellings, I realised that my grandparents language was not wrong, just Ottoman. Together with the Cyprus Turkish we get our own language (Kibrislica).

[phoenix]

:roll:

Phoenix you sound like a typical Cypriot male...living in some fantasy world where you try to justify things to make yourself feel a bit better

"Cypriot Greek is far more complex when compared to Greek"...AND?!?!?

If it doesn't mean a thing if it's JUST a dialect then what are you trying to prove here?

Next you'll be telling us you're more worthy because the GC Wikipedia article has much more words and pictures than the TC one...

Maybe you know more about Cypriot males than I do

I didn't mention the relative MERITS or WORTH of any language . . I was just pointing out to you that different dialects are easy to pick up, even over short distances. Even birds sing in different dialects in different parts of eg London.

But if only a few words are different in Cypriot Turkish relative to Turkish, does that really justify the fuss over its preservation? It would take less than a day to memorise that extent of words.

[DT.]

EXcellent.

The title reads "One in fifteen GC high school students now studying Turkish"

So far the TC reaction to this thread has been to see through this machiavellian tactic these Greek Cypriot kids have done and call it "an attempt to take away the rightful jobs from the TC's in the ROC."

Please go through this for a second and examine the hellish sewers of paranoia that these forum members have finaly stooped to.

Oh and Zan managed to throw in the words Oppression, rape and murder.

Imagine if the title read "1 in 15 GC toddlers prefer Turkish nursery rhymes to Greek ones." WOuld you also accusse the toddlers of prefering this so that they can some day join the Navy Seals, sneak into a Turkish Generals bedroom, use THE SAME NURSERY RHYME to lull him to sleep and then assassinate him?

The correct response to this post would have been

: Good for them, they don't deny the fact that in this region Turkey is a very big player and whether you want a govt job or a private sector job Turkish will be very beneficial to them. As a side effect it will also bring the communities closer as there now will be a new generation of GC's who can communicate with the TC's in their own language.

But off course, instead we have Zan spitting about "oppression, rape and murder" to people who have are only 30 years away from the last time Turkey committed those exact crimes.

Get a grip.

If you are going to take the one time that I responded with an attempt at sarcasm to GRs posted and use it against me then I suppose it is only fair to point out that craftily included the Turkish operation in your post when you say it was 30 years ago......


Oh! I will hear you cry........That oppression is still going on today!!!!! SO ARE THE BLOODY EMBARGOES..........Your isolation of us started long before.


And the fact that it was Kafenes that started the whole business of Government jobs and the Turkish language and what I said was that it was just a soft option for lazy students and then that Turkish in the EU would be a good idea for those diligent ones is just another exaggeration by you...Nice try at a slur on me but you will need to work a bit harder than that mate

It wasn't a slur on you Zan, slurs tend to be much more secretive and discreet. What I said was a downright accusation against you regarding your thread-jacking by reminding eveyone at every possible opportunity that people got killed in Cyprus. I can understand why you do it Zan..you're frustrations at what you call a very successful campaign by the GC's to inform the world regarding their plight has forced you into a permanent OTT overdrive. At first it began with threads that had something to do with killing and fighting...after a while you've resorted to bashing each thread with a couple of reminders that some TC's were killed at some point by GC's.

Hell I'm thinkin about starting a thread about kittens just to see how you'll link it to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

I wouldn't try to place a slur on you Zan....you're much too intelligent for me (no sarcasm here). The direct approach is always the best and simplest.