Linguistic diversity and language politics in Cyprus
Authors:   Mariupol State University, Labetska Y. 
Published: June 2024

The article examines the peculiarities of the language situation in the Republic of Cyprus, which is characterized as diglossia. The social and personal dimension of linguistic diversity in the Greek Cypriot community has been analyzed. It has been found that school curricula mostly ignore the coexistence of at least two language varieties, while the classroom language is characterized by constant code-switching and code-mixing. It has been clarified in which communicative situations different language varieties are used, in both classroom language and the language of Greek Cypriots outside the classroom. It has been established that the language issue in Cyprus has an evident political component, and the unsuccessful attempt to change the language situation through the introduction of new educational programs is explained by the unpreparedness of both the education system and the collective consciousness of Greek Cypriots. It was established that in everyday communication, the majority of Greek Cypriots use a language variety known as the common Cypriot language. This variety, excluding basilect elements, only contains all-Cypriot elements that make it understandable and acceptable to all native speakers. This variety is opposed to Standard Modern Greek, the official language of the state. The analysis of language use and teachers' opinions on the coexistence of two varieties reveals that each specific community of speakers (a school class, a group of friends, a professional team, etc.) creates its own hybrid variety, which is a mixture of elements of the two varieties. The fact that the pre-2010 and post-2013 school curricula ignore this linguistic reality and only define Standard Modern Greek as the target language shows on the one hand their over-regulatory nature, and on the other hand, their inability to take advantage of this situation, which could be used to develop language awareness and critical thinking of students. It is emphasized that it is the teachers who implement a particular educational philosophy in the classroom. Therefore, it is very important to be able to reflect and redefine the goals of teaching a language lesson to meet the needs of each specific class. At the same time, it is vitally important to master properly the language resources that students already have at their disposal, paying attention to the social and communicative context of using one or the other language variety and helping to form appropriate linguistic and cultural identities in students. The study showed that educators in Cyprus (the Greek-Cypriot part) are very attentive to the language issue and recognize that the current situation in the field of language education needs changes. During a three-year period (2010-2013), new educational programs were introduced, which took into account the peculiarities of the language situation in the Greek- Cypriot community and sought, as it seems, to start the process of changing the relationship between the two language varieties that form the situation of diglossia. This short experience has demonstrated that such changes require very careful preparation of society, otherwise they will only happen on paper. Key words: language variety, language policy, Standard Modern Greek language, Cypriot Greek dialect, linguistic diversity, language situation, diglossia.