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The Cypriot Dialect of Greek (Cypriot Greek or '''Kypriaka''') is spoken by more than half a million people in Cyprus and several hundred thousands abroad. It is never used in formal writing but is the spoken everyday language of most Greek Cypriot s. It is also the first language of older Turkish Cypriot s 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 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. It is also common on the internet and on phone text messages. 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 Medieval 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, major poets being Vasilis Michaelides and Dimitris Lipertis . More recently it has been used in Reggae by Hadji Mike and rap by several cypriot Hip Hop groups, most notably HCH . CHARACTERISTICS Archaisms: In the dialect, double consonants are pronounced differently from single consonants (unlike Standard Modern Greek). Double unvoiced plosives (ττ, ππ, κκ) are pronounced aspirated (/tʰ/, /pʰ/, /kʰ/ or /cʰ/), the rest double consonants are pronounced as Geminate (μμ pronounced /mː/ etc.). Participles ending in -οντα instead of Modern Greek -οντας. Use of infinitives as nouns (το δειν = the gaze). Archaic vocabulary: Συντυχάννω/λαλώ along with standard greek μιλώ (talk), ένι and εν instead of είναι (is). Another characteristic is extensive Palatalisation : Standard Greek /c/ becomes /dʒ/ e.g Standard Greek και /ce/ (=and) Cypriot τζιαι /dʒe/. Note however this is not a hard and fast rule (counter-examples: κηδεία, κέρδος, άκυρο, ρακέττα). The Modern Cypriot Lexicon contains Loanwords from Turkish , Arabic , English , Italian and other languages, as well as words unique to Cyprus. EXTERNAL LINKS
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