Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

Department of Linguistics, UCSD
San Diego Linguistic Papers, Issue 2
(University of California, San Diego)
Year 2006 Paper 2

Linguistic practices in Cyprus and the
emergence of Cypriot Standard Greek

Amalia Arvaniti
University of California, San Diego

“In Cyprus today systematic changes affecting all levels of linguistic analysis are observed in the use of Standard Greek, giving rise to a distinct linguistic variety which can be called Cypriot Standard Greek. The changes can be attributed to the influence of English and Cypriot Greek (the local linguistic variety), and to the increasing use of the Standard in semi-formal occasions. Equally important is the reluctance to recognize the diglossic situation on the island (in which Standard Greek is the H variety and Cypriot Greek the L), for political and ideological reasons. This in turn means that the attention of the Cypriot speakers is not drawn to the differences between Standard Greek as spoken in Greece and their usage of it; thus the differences become gradually consolidated, while
the users remain unaware of them.”

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewc ... t=ucsdling

[Get Real!]

AMALIA ARVANITI
University of California, San Diego
LINGUISTIC PRACTICES IN CYPRUS AND THE EMERGENCE OF CYPRIOT STANDARD GREEK

“I have shown that in Cyprus today a new form of Standard Greek—Cypriot Standard Greek—is being gradually created; this form is recognizably different from Standard Greek as spoken in Greece. The origin of this phenomenon can partly be attributed to practical needs and changing circumstances. As shown, however, such needs cannot fully explain the emergence of this new variety. Rather, Cypriot Standard Greek appears to be related also to the reluctance of the community to acknowledge the extent of the differences between Standard Greek and Cypriot, because of the implications that their recognition would carry: according to the dominant ideology, language is the main determiner of ethnicity; thus, admitting that Greek and Cypriot are very different from each other and that Cypriot Standard Greek is not the same as Standard Greek would be tantamount to saying that Greeks and Cypriots are ethnically distinct. This reluctance has gradually lead to the emergence of Cypriot Standard Greek, without either the speakers or the commentators being aware that while debating the Cypriot language question Cypriot Standard Greek has been happening to them.”

http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~arvaniti/Arvaniti.MedLR.pdf

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CYPRIOT AS A VOS LANGUAGE (V(erb) O(bject) S(ubject))

"Cypriot is usually referred to as a dialect of Greek, but Standard Greek and Cypriot are mutually unintelligible. According to Newton (1972:19), “While speakers of village dialect do not nowadays experience much difficulty in following Standard Demotic and can often produce an approximation to it which is intelligible to mainland speakers, evidence derived from playing tape recordings to Athenian informants indicates that the intelligibility of Cypriot /xorkatika/ to the inhabitants of mainland towns is comparable to that of Dutch to speakers of High German.” The Cypriots understand and speak, more or less, many of the varieties of the Greek language. Standard Greek is used by Greek-Cypriots as their written form of language."

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/linguistics/ ... siliou.pdf

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Wikipriaka - A live dictionary of the Cypriot Language

http://wikipriaka.com/en

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A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic-English)

"Cypriot Arabic, an unwritten language and mother tongue of several hundred bilingual (Arabic/Greek) Maronites from Kormakiti (N.W. Cyprus), evolved from a medieval Arabic colloquial brought to the island by Christian Arab migrants (probably from Asia Minor and Syria). It represents the outcome of a unique linguistic and cultural synthesis drawing on Arabic, Aramaic, and Greek; its Arabic component also shows a hybrid areal profile combining Greater Syrian traits with formal features typical of the contemporary S.E.Anatolian-Mesopotamian dialectal continuum. A number of rare Aramaic substratal elements in Cypriot Arabic suggest a relatively early separation of its parent dialect from mainstream Arabic.
This lexicon surveys about 2000 Cypriot Arabic terms against the background of extensive comparative material from the Arabic dialects, Old Arabic, and colloquial and literary varieties of Aramaic. Many Cypriot Arabic terms are here cited with illustrative examples and ethnographic commentary where relevant. Cypriot Arabic is an endangered language; the present glossary is the most comprehensive lexical record of this scientifically intriguing variety of peripheral Arabic. It is primarily intended for orientalists and linguists specializing in comparative Semitics and Arabic dialectology."

http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=11385

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The Cypriot Sign Language

Κυπριακή Νοηματική Γλώσσα (Kipriaké Noematiké Glossa)

http://www10.gencat.net/pres_casa_lleng ... 3&idioma=5

[B25]

GR, I have to hand it to you mate.

Pou tin vriskis tin orexi na psianxis tounta pragmata den xerw.

mpravo sou reh, makari an' mporousa tzie yio na ta kamnw.

Na eisai kala

[Get Real!]

GR, I have to hand it to you mate.

Pou tin vriskis tin orexi na psianxis tounta pragmata den xerw.

mpravo sou reh, makari an' mporousa tzie yio na ta kamnw.

Na eisai kala

They refuse to let us fight the enemy so this is the least I can do for my country for the time being.

[insan]

Where's Cypriot Turkish reh seperatist GR?! Biz insan deyilik?

[insan]

Department of Linguistics, UCSD
San Diego Linguistic Papers, Issue 2
(University of California, San Diego)
Year 2006 Paper 2

Linguistic practices in Cyprus and the
emergence of Cypriot Standard Greek

Amalia Arvaniti
University of California, San Diego

“In Cyprus today systematic changes affecting all levels of linguistic analysis are observed in the use of Standard Greek, giving rise to a distinct linguistic variety which can be called Cypriot Standard Greek. The changes can be attributed to the influence of English and Cypriot Greek (the local linguistic variety), and to the increasing use of the Standard in semi-formal occasions. Equally important is the reluctance to recognize the diglossic situation on the island (in which Standard Greek is the H variety and Cypriot Greek the L), for political and ideological reasons. This in turn means that the attention of the Cypriot speakers is not drawn to the differences between Standard Greek as spoken in Greece and their usage of it; thus the differences become gradually consolidated, while
the users remain unaware of them.”

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewc ... t=ucsdling

Hmmm... so what GCs and Greeks actually speak is 2 different dialects of Choirokitianish?