Language Contact and Borders among Pontic Greek and Cypriot Greek in Karpasia, Cyprus: Yours Don’t Match with Ours

Abstract

The current paper explores language contact between two Greek varieties, Pontic Greek and Cypriot Greek, in the northern part of Cyprus. After the de facto partition of Cyprus in 1974, several Pontic Greek-speaking communities were transplanted from their homeland in Trabzon to the peninsula of Karpasia in northern Cyprus. These “newcomers” or “immigrants” or “settlers” were brought from Turkey after the displacement of the Greek Cypriot population living in the north. Hence, from 1976 another Greek linguistic variety emerged in the area, Pontic Greek or Romeyka or Rumca, which was the home variety of the newcomers. Although Greek Cypriots were forced to leave the area, Cypriot Greek retained a strong presence in Karpasia, spoken by Turkish Cypriot Romeika speakers and by Greek Cypriots who remained “enclaved” in some villages of the peninsula. Hence, a dynamic and multifacet sociolinguistic context has been created where two main non-standard varieties of the Greek language, Cypriot Greek and Pontic Greek, are in contact and are spoken by different groups of speakers and where Turkish remains the dominant and official language. Within this context, the current paper explores instances of language contact between Pontic Greek and Cypriot Greek, focusing on the narratives produced by Pontic Greek speakers. The paper employs ethnographic methods for approaching these communities and for understanding issues of language use and language values within a heavily politicized context. The theoretical constructs of space and border are used to interpret the data and provide a deeper understanding of language contact, daily practices, and wider ideologies.