Identity formation and dialect use among young speakers of the Greek-Cypriot community in Cyprus
Language, Culture and Identity in Applied Linguistics - Richard Kiely
Andry Sophocleous [+ ]
University of Nicosia
View Website
Andry Sophocleous is Lecturer in the Department of Languages at Intercollege, Nicosia. Her teaching covers the areas of Linguistics and English as a Second Language. Her present research is concerned with the language attitudes of young Greek-Cypriots towards the Greek-Cypriot Dialect. Her research interests include diglossia, code-switching, majority-minority language relations and language and national identity.
Description
The two language varieties used in the southern part of Cyprus are Standard Modern Greek (SMG), the official language that is regarded as the prestigious form, and used in educational institutions, in the media, in political gatherings, governmental offices, and in the court of law; and Greek-Cypriot Dialect (GCD) which is used in everyday conversation, amongst family and friends, in folk literature and songs, and in political and cultural satire. This chapter discusses how the use of dialect can affect identity.