A Small Island With Big Differences? Folk Perceptions in the Context of Dialect Levelling and Koineization

This paper presents the results of the first study within a perceptual dialectology framework in the Greek-speaking community in Cyprus. Thirty participants from three age groups of equal size took part in a sociolinguistic interview. As part of the language module component of the interview, they discussed their beliefs about regional variation in Cyprus and completed the so-called ‘draw-a-map task’. All participants were residents of urban areas of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. The Greek-speaking community in Cyprus is diglossic: Standard Modern Greek is the High variety, while Cypriot Greek—the mother tongue of Greek Cypriots—is the Low variety. The latter is currently undergoing levelling of marked local basilect features and subvarieties. A quantitative analysis of the maps demonstrates that some areas in Cyprus (mainly in the periphery) have a stronger sociolinguistic salience than others. At the same time, the participants’ own way of speaking is perceived as unmarked, neutral and one that enjoys wider acceptance over other regional dialects. This study also shows a clear preference for characterizing a (presumed) dialect area with linguistic characteristics, rather than with evaluative commentary contra many similar studies in the literature and suggests a number of reasons why this may be so. Overall, this research shows how studies on language perception can inform and complement studies on language production in a given community. The participants drew an average of just four regional areas on their maps and viewed the different cities and their districts, or combinations thereof, as the different regional dialect areas they perceive to exist in Cyprus. It is argued in this paper that the small number of areas drawn and the emphasis on urban sites are consistent with regional dialect levelling. Consistent with regional dialect levelling is also the finding that the participants’ linguistic description of regional variation, while mainly accurate, is superficial and lacks detail. Interestingly, many of the participants also seem to be well aware of regional dialect levelling in their community. Other studies in the literature do not really discuss speakers’ awareness of levelling and this should be further explored in future studies.

Peripheries

This short chapter contains three case studies: on Malta, Cyprus, and the South Caucasus. Given their respective locations on the southern and south-eastern extremities of Europe, all three have been subject to diverse and at times competing religious currents over many centuries. The impact of these currents needs careful interpretation. In the twenty-first century, Malta remains an actively Catholic society. Cyprus is still divided on ethno-religious lines: Turkish Cypriots are concentrated in the north and Greek Cypriots live in the south. The situation in the South Caucasus is more complex. It is shaped by a mixture of Western European, Russian, and Turkish references, but overall the region remains more a periphery of Europe than of Iran or Asia.

Festivals for Inclusion? Examining the Politics of Cultural Events in Northern Cyprus

In Northern Cyprus, cultural festivals are increasingly popular. The routinely celebrated festivals transform small villages into colourful celebrations with lots of activities and great culinary experiences, offering opportunities for social contact between members of different generations. People meet in the streets, where traditional food and handicrafts are on display and traditional folk dance performances usually take place. Cultural events provide an important space in which older generations often nostalgically remember the past with others of their generation and share their memories with the young people. Bi‐communal interactions between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in these public spaces also help leave behind and bury the violence of the past, nationalistic dogma, and intolerance. Drawing on ideas from postcolonial theory, cultural studies, sociology, and scholarship on public art, this article develops a post‐postcolonial approach to explore the politics and value of Turkish Cypriot cultural festivals and the ways in which Turkish Cypriots are bridging differences with Greek Cypriots. Through observations, conversations, and interviews conducted with Turkish Cypriots from June 2014 to October 2017, the article also discusses the ways in which public art encourages dialogue and multicultural tolerance in Cyprus. The article argues that the rise of interest in Turkish Cypriot folk arts and multicultural tolerance, as propagated by Turkish Cypriots, should be understood in more complex terms than simply that of positive inclusion, as an ambivalence closely connected to the East/West division. Accordingly, the article illustrates that the coexistence of inclu‐ sion and exclusion are at the heart of Turkish Cypriot society.

Comparative Y-chromosome analysis among Cypriots in the context of historical events and migrations

Y-chromosome analysis provides valuable information regarding the migration patterns of male ancestors, ranging from the Paleolithic age to the modern humans. STR and SNP genotyping analysis provides data regarding the genetic and geographical ancestry of the populations studied. This study focused on the analysis of the Y-chromosome in Maronite Cypriots and Armenian Cypriots, who came to the island as a result of different historical events. The aim was to provide information on the paternal genetic ancestry of Maronites and Armenians of Cyprus and investigate any affinity with the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots of the island. Since there is limited information in the current literature, we proceeded and used 23 Y-chromosome STRs and 28 Y-chromosome SNPs to genotype 57 Maronite Cypriots and 56 Armenian Cypriots, which were then compared to data from 344 Greek Cypriots and 380 Turkish Cypriots. All samples were assigned to eight major Y-haplogroups but the most frequent haplogroup among all Cypriots is haplogroup J in the major subclade J2a-L559. The calculated pairwise genetic distances between the populations show that Armenian Cypriots are genetically closer to Greek and Turkish Cypriots compared to Maronite Cypriots. Median Joining Network analysis in 17 Y-STR haplotypes of all Cypriots assigned to J2a-L559, revealed that Cypriots share a common paternal ancestor, prior to the migration of the Armenians and Maronites to Cyprus, estimated in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.

The Organization of Football in Cyprus: History and Politics

This paper employs the history and politics of football looking at discussions about Cyprus’ national identity, the relationship between the Greek-Cypriot state and its self-declared Turkish-Cypriot counterpart, and the possibility of reunification. It explores these issues from both sides of the divide, something rarely undertaken in Cyprus, and within a wider European perspective, by comparing it briefly with the modern football histories of Ireland, Spain and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Football and its inherent developments reflect not only the political rivalries in the world of Greek-Cypriot football, but also the encounters between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots. The history of Cypriot football has no similar precedent in the selected European space. In Ireland, the peace process has not ended historic civil society divisions, while football agents with opposing political ideologies across the Greek and Turkish divide in Cyprus have been able to overcome their differences, political elites on one side of the border have prevented unification. In Spain’s Catalonia, while the football-fed movement for independence, yet to materialize, remains subject to approval by Spain’s institutions, the independence of the de facto Turkish-Cypriot state would require the approval of the governments of the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and Britain. Finally, while FIFA and UEFA have successfully dictated the terms for the final admission of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s football Federation into their membership, they have failed to repeat this achievement in the Cypriot case.

Appealing to Hearts and Minds

This research explores the political advertising campaign of Niyazi Kızılyürek, who was a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election with the left-wing Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus. It aims to uncover the content of political ads by focusing on the emotive character of the campaign language. Adopting a multi-method approach involving visual and qualitative content analysis of fifty-five ads, I examined the characteristics of communication materials distributed prior to the election. I looked at the type of tone, theme, language, music, visuals, and emotions these ads displayed. The main findings of the study are the following: (1) Kızılyürek’s political stance, which favors a solution to the problem of Cyprus based on creating a federation with Greek Cypriots, is literally reflected in each ad; (2) issue-based ads that underline political issues in the country were preferred to image-based ads that highlighted the personal qualities of the candidate; (3) both emotional appeals (associated with feelings such as hope and enthusiasm) and logical appeals (which tended to promote rational information processed by the conscious mind) were employed in the ads; and, (4) the overall tone of the ads was positive in nature, while negative emotions were completely avoided in this campaign.