Cypriot_greek

This article is about the modern Greek dialect of Cyprus. For the ancient Greek dialect, see Arcadocypriot.

The Cypriot dialect of Greek (Cypriot Greek (Greek: Κυπριακή διάλεκτος) or Kypriaka (Greek: Κυπριακά)) is spoken by 750,000 people in Cyprus and several hundreds of thousands abroad.

Usage and settings

It is the spoken everyday language of most Greek Cypriots. It is also the first language of older Turkish Cypriots from specific villages (e.g Louroudjina and the Tylliria/Dillirga region) and most other older Turkish Cypriots would speak it as a second language. There is diglossia (in the linguistic sense) between Dhimotiki and the dialect. There are specific settings where speaking Standard Greek is demanded or considered polite, such as in school classes (but not during breaks), in parliament, in the media, and in the presence of Greek-speaking foreigners. Cypriot Greek is common on the internet and on phone text messages.

In general, the stronger the use of dialect in a speaker (closer to the basilect), the more likely he is to be perceived as a villager (χώρκατος) or of an uneducated and poor background. This can be particularly stigmatizing within formal and upper class circles.

The social consensus on the High and Low roles of the acrolect and basilect make Cypriot diglossia more like the diglossia of Greece in the mid 19th century (when Dhimotiki was stigmatised), and less like the diglossia of the 20th century (when the consensus had broken down, and Dhimotiki and Katharevousa were competing to become the High language). Cypriot diglossia makes the dialect one of only two Greek dialects currently still widely used; the other, Pontic language, is healthier in the former Soviet Union and Turkey than in Greece itself, where its use is increasingly emblematic. Accordingly, Cypriot is the only Greek dialect with a significant presence of spontaneous use online, including blogs and bulletin boards, and even its own flavour of Greeklish.

History and literature

The modern Cypriot dialect is not an evolution of the ancient Arcadocypriot dialect, but evolved from Koine. Cyprus was cut off from the rest of the Greek-speaking world from the 7th to the 10th century A.D due to Arab attacks. It was reintegrated in the Byzantine Empire in 962 to be isolated again in 1191 when it fell to the hands of crusaders. This isolation developed a lot of linguistic characteristics distinct from Byzantine Greek.

The legislation of the Kingdom of Cyprus in the Middle Ages was written in the dialect. Other important medieval works are the chronicles of Leontios Makhairas and George Boustronios, as well as a collection of sonnets in the manner of Francesco Petrarca.

In the past hundred years, the dialect has been used in poetry, major poets being Vasilis Michaelides and Dimitris Lipertis. It is also traditionally used for folk songs and poetry, including τσιαττιστά (battle poetry, a form of Playing the dozens) and the tradition of ποιητάρηες (bards). More recently it has been used in Reggae by Hadji Mike and rap by several Cypriot hip hop groups.DNA (Dimiourgoi Neas Antilipsis) a hiphop group from Cypriot released an album named "sihnotites" with 2 tracks in Cypriot. (See also Music of Cyprus).

Locally produced television shows, usually comedies or soap operas, make use of the dialect.

Technical characteristics

Phonology

• Double consonants preserved the stressed pronunciation of Ancient Greek.
  • Double unvoiced plosives (ττ, ππ, κκ) are pronounced aspirated ([t^h], [p^h], [k^h] or [c^h] depending on the succeeding vowel).
  • The rest of the double consonants are pronounced as geminates. (e.g. λλ as [lː], μμ as [mː], etc.)
• Extreme "palatalization" of Greek velars to palato-alveolars when followed by the front vowels [e] and [i] and the semivowel [j]. It should be noted that Standard Greek pronunciation exhibits true palatalization of velars to palatals ([k] > [c] and [x] > [ç]). The palato-alveolars in Cypriot Greek can be found both as affricates ([tʃ]) and fricatives ([ʃ]):
  1. The "palatalization" of kappa (κάππα), i.e. κ > κ̌: Standard Greek [c] becomes a soft affricate [tʃ]. This sound is usually represented with τζι or the more correct κ̌. For example, Standard Greek καί [ce] meaning and becomes Cypriot Greek τζιαί or κ̌αί [tʃe]. Also Standard Greek εκείνος [e\'cinos] becomes Cypriot Greek κ̌είνος [\'tʃinos]. Note however this is not a hard and fast rule (counter-examples include loans from Standard Greek: κηδεία, κέρδος, άκυρο, ρακέττα).
  2. The "palatalization" of chi (χι), i.e. χ > χ̌: Similarly Standard Greek [ç] becomes [ʃ]. This sound is usually represented with σι or the more correct χ̌. For example, Standard Greek χέρι [\'çeri] meaning hand becomes Cypriot Greek σιέρι or χ̌έρι [\'ʃeri].
• Voicing of φ, θ and χ (aspirated consonants in Ancient Greek) before liquids and nasals, to β, δ and γ respectively. (e.g. γρόνος (Cypriot dialect) instead of χρόνος (Modern Greek) (= year), άδρωπος (Cypriot dialect) instead of άνθρωπος (Modern Greek) (= human)).This process is partially reversed in younger speakers due to the influence of Standard Greek.
• Deletion of β, δ, γ, voiced intervocalic fricatives; e.g. κοπελλούδιν > κοππελούιν "little child". In linguistic texts, the deleted fricative is sometimes put in brackets for clarity: κοππελού(δ)ιν.
• /x/ > /θ/: e.g. άνθρωπος > άχρωπος "human"
• Defrication of [ʝ]/[ç] that function as semi-vowels in Modern Greek to [c] with most of the time modification of the preceding consonant. (e.g. ποιός [pços] in Standard Greek would be pronounced as πκοιός [pcos], σπίτια [\'spitça] in Standard Greek would be pronounced as σπίθκια [\'spiθca]). This is carried further in some parts of Cyprus where speakers use e.g. πσοιός [pʃos]
• External sandhi rules for word-final nasal consonants:
  • /n/ before bilabials becomes [m]: e.g. τον παπαγάλον [tom bapa\'ɣalon] the parrot (acc.).
  • /n/ before velars becomes [ŋ]: e.g. την κρατικήν [tiŋ grati\'kin] the governmental (acc.).
  • Standard Greek sandhi rules for word-final [n] do not apply to Cypriot Greek; the /n/ is used much more frequently in Cypriot Greek.

Morphology

• Present participles ending in -οντα instead of Modern Greek -οντας.
• Archaisms such as the use of infinitives as nouns (e.g. το δειν, the gaze)
• In slang the Turkish derivational suffix -lik, added as -λίκκι(ν), is used to transform a concrete noun to an abstract noun as noted here.
  For example: "ο πρόεδρος" (the president) becomes "το προεδριλίκκι" (the presidency).

  Note: The incorporation of this particular type of Turkish morphology is also found in Standard Greek, however as the suffix -λίκι.
  Cypriot Greek used two κ to phonologically imitate the aspirated k of Turkish.

• The suffixes -ούης/-ούα/-ούι(ν) for masculine, feminine and neuter respectively, are used to derive diminutives of nouns, in place of Standard Greek -άκης/-ίτσα/-άκι. The Cypriot Greek suffixes derive from the original -ούδης/-ούδα/-ούδι(ν) with the drop of Intervocalic δ.

Vocabulary

• The Modern Cypriot lexicon contains loanwords mostly from Italian, Provençal, Turkish and English, and other languages, as well as words unique to Cyprus. Thus typically non Muslim speakers use standard Muslim expressions such as i(n)shalla(h) or mashalla(h) which have become part of the vocabulary.
• The Cypriot lexicon also contains Ancient Greek vocabulary which is no longer used in Standard Greek. Example: Συντυχάννω/λαλώ (talk).

Syntax

• The verb is: ένι and εν instead of είναι (Modern Greek). εν is ambiguous between the negative particle (Standard Greek δεν), in front of a verb (e.g. εν πειράζει = δεν πειράζει "it doesn\'t matter"), and the copula (e.g. εν καλά = είναι καλά "she is well").
• "έννα" used as the Future particle, in contrast to standard Greek "θα" (each of these being a different contraction from θέλει νά)
• Personal pronouns

Note: εγιώ/εγιώνι and εσού/εσούνι are currently not in use as much as standard Greek εγώ and εσύ. Τούντο is a contraction of Τούτον το etc. Both forms can be used e.g Τούτον το πράμαν= τούντο πράμαν.

Besides τούτος as a generic demonstrative, there is also the more specific spatial demonstrative pronoun τζείνος, -η, -ο (\'him/her/that there\'). (From Standard Greek εκείνος).

• Order of personal pronoun-verb is different than modern Greek, example:

"(He) told me" in cypriot is "Είπεν μου" instead of standard modern Greek "μου είπε"

Spelling

While the σι spelling is commonly used to represent [ʃ], it presupposes a following vowel, e.g. σιέρι. When [ʃ] is found at the end of the word or before a consonant (in loan words), the σι spelling cannot be used. For example the word /paʃ/ < the Turkish baş meaning "main", cannot be spelled as πάσι, since that will be interpreted as [pasi]. Since diacritics are not used outside linguistics, Cypriots will frequently recourse to the English spelling instead: παsh.

References

• Beaudouin, M. 1884: Étude du dialecte chypriote moderne et medieval [Study of the Modern and Medieval Cypriot Dialect] (Paris).
• Horrocks, G. 1997: Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (London), ελλ. μτφ. υπό Μ. Σταύρου & Μ. Τζεβελέκου (Αθήνα 2006).
• Thumb, A. 1909: Handbuch der griechischen Dialekte [Handbook of Greek Dialects] (Heidelberg).
• Κοντοσόπουλος, Ν. 1994(2): Διάλεκτοι και Ιδιώματα της Νέας Ελληνικής [Dialects and Properties of Neo-Hellenic] (Αθήνα).
• Μενάρδος, Σ. 1969: Γλωσσικαί Μελέται [Language Studies] (Λευκωσία).
• Μηνάς, Κ. 1987: «Αφομοίωση του ερρίνου με τους άηχους κλειστούς φθόγγους στην ελληνική γλώσσα» [Assimilation of Nasal with Silent Closed Sounds in the Greek Language] ― Πρακτικά Β΄ Διεθνούς Κυπριολογικού Συνεδρίου, τόμ. 3, σελ. 253-283 (Λευκωσία).
• Μηνάς, Κ. 2000: «Φωνητικά και ετυμολογικά τής Κυπριακής διαλέκτου» [Phonetics and Etymologies of the Cypriot Dialect] ― Νεοελληνική Διαλεκτολογία 3, σελ. 151-188
• Newton, B. 1972: Cypriot Greek. Its phonology and inflexion (The Hague: Mouton).
• Παντελίδης, Χ. 1929: Φωνητική των Νεοελληνικών Ιδιωμάτων Κύπρου, Δωδεκανήσου και Ικαρίας [Phonetics of Neo-Hellenic Dialects of Cyprus, Dodecanese, and Icaria] (Αθήνα).
• Χατζηιωάννου, Κ. 1996: Ετυμολογικό Λεξικό τής Ομιλουμένης Κυπριακής Διαλέκτου [Etymological Dictionary of the Spoken Cypriot Dialect] (Λευκωσία).
• Χατζηιωάννου, Κ. 1999: Γραμματική τής Ομιλουμένης Κυπριακής Διαλέκτου [Grammar of the Spoken Cypriot Dialect] (Λευκωσία).
• Χριστοδούλου, Μ. 1970: "Περί των διαλεκτικών ζωνών εν τη νέα Ελληνική γλώσση και της θέσεως της κυπριακής διαλέκτου εν αυταίς" [The Position of the Cypriot Dialect within the Dialectical Zones of the Neo-Hellenic Language] - Επετηρίς Κέντρου Επιστημονικών Ερευνών Κύπρου, τόμ. 3, σελ. 119-138.

See also

• Cypriot Turkish
• List of Cypriots
• Gibrizlija

External links

• Κυπριακή διάλεκτος (Ι)
• Κυπριακή διάλεκτος (ΙΙ)
• Κυπριακή διάλεκτος (ΙΙI)

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