Perceptions of difference in the Greek sphereThe case of Cyprus

Abstract

Cypriot Greek has been cited as “the last surviving Modern Greek dialect” (Contossopoulos 1969:92, 2000:21), and differences between it and Standard Modern Greek are often seen as seriously disruptive of communication by Mainland and Cypriot Greeks alike. This paper attempts an anatomy of the linguistic ‘difference’ of the Cypriot variety of Greek. By placing this in the wider context of the history of Cypriot Greek, the study and current state of other Modern Greek dialects, and state and national ideology in the two countries, Greece and Cyprus, it is possible to identify both diachronic and synchronic, as well as structural and ideological factors as constitutive of this difference.

Discrete bilectalism: towards co-overt prestige and diglossic shift in Cyprus

“…If acquisition research shows that these binationals demonstrate graded performance, then these individuals collectively have the potential to effect language change. This could disrupt an otherwise relatively stable diglossic state in an unexpected direction, since the demise of diglossia usually means that L rises to overtake H functions, as Dimotiki did with respect to Katharevousa in Greece (Terkourafi 2007). On the other hand, and this as more likely in diglossic scenarios, binationals could simply be absorbed into the linguistic system, having "merely" a perfect rather than approximate command of H. In other words, if the split remains not only functionally compartmentalized, but also structurally "clean" (or separate, distinct, and hence discrete), binationals would be expected to be ideal models or, in essence, "guardians" of the perfect functional compartmentalization of the two varieties, furthering strengthening the stability of the diglossic state.…”

Measurement invariance: The case of measuring romantic attachment in Greek and Cypriot adolescents

“…Therefore, the mainland Greek ECR-R phrasing, could moderate (i.e. lower score) responses from Cypriot adolescents (Terkourafi, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, Cyprus as a former English colony and current Commonwealth member, has been exposed to more individualistic influences (Terkourafi, 2007). Subsequently, the interpersonal aspects associated with ECR-R could be perceived differently (Mastrotheodoros et al, 2015).…”

School Based Speech and Language Therapists’ Perceptions of MLU-w and Its Use

“…In addition, another topic that has been barely touched upon is the prosody of CYG, and in fact little is known about its rhythm and prosodic structure [39]. Many lexical items and their phonological elements, from Turkish, Arabic, English, Italian, and French, have been also integrated into CYG and they have been adapted to fit in with the phonological and grammatical structure of CYG [30].…”

“…In the part of the island controlled by the Republic of Cyprus the majority of the population consists of native speakers of CYG, the linguistic variety of interest in this study. CYG is a south-eastern dialect of Modern Greek and it is spoken on the island of Cyprus by approximately 800,000 people [39]. The Greek dialects, including CYG, have a range of several syntactic and morphosyntactic phenomena [34].…”