Stavroula Tsiplakou, “Present-day Cypriot Greek: Will the Dialect Survive?”

Recent research has shown that the contemporary Cypriot Greek variety is changing because of close contact with Standard Modern Greek: mixed, hybrid structures are emerging which make the pancypriot, koine variety more standard-like; moreover, local subvarieties tend to disappear and be replaced by the koine variety as a result of demographic changes post 1974. However, we are a long way away from full convergence to Standard Greek, and the pancypriot variety displays linguistic vitality. In her talk, Professor Tsiplakou examines some of the reasons why Cypriot Greek does not fully converge with Standard Greek and argues that this is due to both structural and social factors, including the increased local prestige of the dialect.

Stavroula Tsiplakou is Associate Professor of Linguistics, Dean of Arts, and Academic Coordinator of the M.A. program in Greek Linguistics and Literature at the Open University of Cyprus. She holds a B.A. in Greek Literature from the University of Athens, an M.Phil. in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of London. Her research areas include syntax, pragmatics, text linguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational linguistics. She has published in Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry, Pragmatics, Journal of Pragmatics, and Multilingua, Linguistics and Education. She has co-authored national curricula for language in Cyprus and in Greece and she has produced digital platforms for teaching Greek as a second language.

The event was held on February 20, 2024, under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in the United States, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in the United States, the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles, and the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Cyprus in Los Angeles. It was cosponsored by Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®. This program was made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).