The Cypriot dialect of Greek is spoken by more than half a million people in Cyprus and several hundred thousands abroad. The dialect has a similar status to Swiss German does in Switzerland (i.e., it is never used in formal writing but is the spoken everyday language of most Greek-Cypriots. 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. There is diglossia (in the linguistic sense) between Dhimotiki and the dialect.)

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 Eastern Roman Empire in the 10th century to be isolated again in 1191 when it fell to the hands of crusaders. This linguistic isolation preserved a lot of Attic Greek characteristics that were lost in Modern 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 modern times, the dialect has been mainly used in poetry, including works by such major poets as Vasilis Mihailidis and Dimitris Lipertis .

Characteristics

In the dialect, double consonants are pronounced differently than single conconants (unlike Standard Modern Greek). Another characteristic is extensive Palatalisation : standard greek k becomes dj when /e/ or /i/ is following. Example: Standard Greek και /ke/ (=and) Cypriot τζιαι /dje/.

The Modern Cypriot lexicon contains loanwords from Turkish, Arabic, English, Italian and other languages, as well as words unique to Cyprus.