“We are in Cyprus, we have to use our language, don't we?” Pupils’ and their parents’ attitudes towards two proximal linguistic varieties

Abstract

The ideas, values and stereotypes associated with different linguistic varieties in specific communities that are reflected in people's attitudes toward those varieties and their speakers are acquired through social practices and institutions of replication, such as the institution of family and education. These are contexts where language ideologies are produced and reproduced and, consequently, form and affect people's language attitudes. This study examines elementary school aged children's and their parents’ language attitudes in the Greek-speaking community in Cyprus. This community is diglossic with Standard Modern Greek (SMG) being the High variety and Cypriot Greek (CG), the native language of the people, being the Low variety. The study examines whether the participants’ sex, place of residence, education level, and their perceived ability to use the two varieties affect their attitudes towards the two varieties, the people who use them and their views on the introduction of CG to education. The data are collected via questionnaires and interviews and are analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The analysis of the data shows that parents hold more prescriptive ideas about language than the pupils and assign status and superiority only to speakers of the standard variety. At the same time, females in both groups show a tendency to favour the standard variety and standard language speakers while adult males favour the non-standard variety. Overall, the pupils’ language attitudes are positive towards both varieties and those who use them. Unlike their parents, pupils perceive their place of residence (whether it is urban or rural) as a factor that affects the frequency of their use of the two varieties. Data from their language performance at school give credit to their claim. Finally, the pupils seem to value their native language and seek its use at school not only because it is easier for them to understand the lesson, but also because they view it as part of their identity. Their parents do not seem to share their children's views, and when they do claim that CG has a place in education in Cyprus, CG is only accepted in oral communication. The examination of the findings is framed with a discussion of two important ideologies cultivated in Greek Cypriot schools: the ideology of the standard language and the ideology of ethnic nationalism.