History Cypriot Greek

cyprus cut off rest of greek-speaking world 7th 10th century ad due arab attacks. reintegrated in byzantine empire in 962 isolated again in 1191 when fell hands of crusaders. these periods of isolation led development of various linguistic characteristics distinct byzantine greek.

the oldest surviving written works in cypriot date medieval period. of these are: legal code of kingdom of cyprus, assizes of jerusalem; chronicles of leontios machairas , georgios voustronios; , collection of sonnets in manner of francesco petrarca. in past hundred years, dialect has been used in poetry (with major poets being vasilis michaelides , dimitris lipertis). traditionally used in folk songs , τσιαττιστά (battle poetry, form of playing dozens) , tradition of ποιητάρηες (bards).

in late seventies, minister of education chrysostomos a. sofianos upgraded status of cypriot introducing in education. more recently, has been used in music, e.g. in reggae hadji mike , in rap several cypriot hip hop groups, such dimiourgoi neas antilipsis (dna). locally produced television shows, comedies or soap operas, make use of dialect, e.g. vourate geitonoi (βουράτε instead of τρέξτε) or oi takkoi (Τάκκος being uniquely cypriot name). 2006 feature film pirates of caribbean: dead man s chest features actor jimmy roussounis arguing in cypriot crew member speaking gibrizlidja (cypriot turkish) captain s hat find in sea. peter polycarpou routinely spoke in cypriot in role chris theodopolopoudos in british television comedy series birds of feather. in episode 04 season 01 of american tv series leftovers aired on 20 july 2014, alex malaos s character uses dialect saying Εκατάλαβα σε .

today, cypriot greek variety of modern greek significant presence of spontaneous use online, including blogs , internet forums, , there exists variant of greeklish reflects distinct phonology.