Debunking a myth: The Greek language in Cyprus is not being destroyed. A linguistic analysis of Cypriot Greek–English codeswitching

Abstract

Aims and objectives:

This paper examines Cypriot Greek–English codeswitching practices by Cypriot-born Greek Cypriots and investigates its linguistic forms, functions and codeswitching types. It also assesses the frequency of English in the data.

Methodology:

The data consist of authentic, informal conversations. Codeswitching is regarded as the use of two languages by one speaker in a single conversation, so established borrowings were excluded from the analysis. For assessing frequency, a word-count was conducted and for data analysis the distinction between insertions and alternations was used.

Data and analysis:

Forty hours of naturally occurring conversations among Greek Cypriots were studied. Data are categorised according to codeswitching types, linguistic forms and functions of English.

Findings/conclusions:

Quantitatively, English use is limited. Thus claims for excessive use of English are unfounded. Structurally, codeswitching mainly takes the form of English insertions in a Cypriot Greek grammatical structure. Most codeswitching is intra-sentential, with mostly English nouns and noun phrases used. Single-word switching is more frequent than multi-word switching.

Originality:

This study, to the author’s knowledge, is the first thorough documentation of oral Cypriot Greek–English codeswitching by Greek Cypriots born and raised in Cyprus and the first study addressing the assertions for the ‘destruction of the Greek language in Cyprus’ using a large sample of empirical data.

Significance/implications:

As Greek Cypriots’ native language but not the standard official language of the state, Cypriot Greek has been accused of being ‘susceptible’ to a heavy use of English because it supposedly lacks the richness of Standard Modern Greek. This work shows that such heavy use is only in the mind of purists and that claims about Cypriot Greek speakers’ linguistic deficit on the basis of purported dense codeswitching are unfounded.