Cyprus-Forum.com

[Alexis]

I'm not so sure about this one Cannedmoose. I'm inclined to agree with Efe in some ways. Whilst your arguments are valid with regards India, Cyprus is a very different place. In India there are a huge number of languages (possibly hundreds) and many of these are/have died out since independence due to lack of speakers. Whether this had anything to do with English being an official language isn't clear. In my oppinion the reason the remaining Indian languages have survived is due to a large number of poorer people who do not know English thus forming a bedrock for the language ensuring that it does not die out. This also means that the middle class people, many of whom consider it preferential to speak in English, must still keep up with their native tongue. This would not be the case in Cyprus, either in the North or the South since there are few young people now without some sort of command of English and very few people who can be considered poor in the same way as India's poor (e.g. how many people in Cyprus do not have access to TV sets and hence the English language). I can quite easily see a situation in 50 years say where the knowledge of Greek/Turkish on the island diminishes to much lower levels where English becomes the language of use by most people.

[cannedmoose]

It's a valid point Alexi, but do you not think that the degree of pride that both communities have in their mother tongues would suffice to prevent that catastrophic eventuality. I'm not advocating that English become the universal lingua franca in Cyprus, to the detriment of Greek and Turkish, languages whose depth and expressionism I both love, simply English would facilitate communication between the communities. I think it will take a long time for full integration and association between GC and TCs to take place, much as was the case before the troubles, they associated, but rarely was it a very close association. Therefore, I still foresee that for the majority of the time, people in both communities will continue to use their mother tongue, falling back on english only when in formal settings such as the courts, or dealings with government officialdom.

For this reason, I would very much doubt that english would take over entirely. To say that is to doubt the strength and endurance of both Greek and Turkish as languages, both of which have survived throughout the ages in spite of occupation, colonisation and huge social change.

[Nickp]

Be nice to have English as a main language, however i dont think it's necessary as i'm sure Greeks/Turks can learn enough from each others language to get by on an everyday level.

I mean how did they get on pre 1974? My grandad use to bring his Turkish friend "Hassan" to work for him on Christmas day but i dont know how they communicated.

Anyways, Greeks from Greece speak that puffy Greek, not our cypriot Greek that contain numerous Turkish words such as "Mashala!" and "Mishimou."