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Intermediate Language Varieties: Koinai and regional standards in Europe
Edited by Massimo Cerruti and Stavroula Tsiplakou
[Studies in Language Variation 24] 2020
► pp. 231–252

Chapter 10
Language variation and maintenance in Cypriot Romeika

A case of non-koineisation

 | University of Cyprus
 | University of Cyprus
 | University of Cyprus
This paper adopts a social networks approach to investigate language variation and maintenance in Cypriot Romeika, a Greek variety spoken by an enclave community of Turkish Cypriots situated in the north of Cyprus. The variety, which has been in isolation for many decades due to political reasons, did not undergo the koineisation processes that took place in Cypriot Greek and thus not only has it preserved “archaic” phenomena that are unavailable in the Cypriot Greek koine, but it also includes several intradialectal geographical isoglosses that were available prior to koineisation. This paper presents the history of the community and its language and discusses why this linguistic situation has voided the processes of koineisation at work in the rest of the Greek-speaking parts of the island. It further explores the sociolinguistic factors involved in language maintenance, including the strong ties between language and identity, and the use of Cypriot Romeika as the language of the home, as well as the attitudes of its speakers towards the Cypriot Greek koine.
Keywords: Cypriot Greek, Cypriot Turkish, enclave communities, koine, social networks
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The community
  • 3.Utilising the social network approach for the investigation of Cypriot Romeika
    • 3.1The social network approach
    • 3.2Method
  • 4.Preservation of “archaic” phenomena
    • 4.1Phenomena attested in every network
      • 4.1.1Dorsalisation of fricatives
      • 4.1.2Voiced consonants in continuant + stop clusters
    • 4.2Phenomena attested in some of the geographical networks
      • 4.2.1Fricative + /j/ clusters
      • 4.2.2Simple past formation of verbs ‘enter’ and ‘go out’
  • 5.Fossilisation and non-koineisation of Cypriot Romeika
    • 5.1Non-koineisation and domains of language use
    • 5.2Romeika as a marker of identity
    • 5.3Fossilization of Cypriot Romeika and non-koineisation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.24.10ioa
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