Cypriot dialect

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The Cypriot dialect of Greek is spoken by more than half a million people in Cyprus and several hundred thousands abroad. The dialect has a similar status to Swiss German (i.e never used in formal writing but is the spoken everyday language of all social levels in cities as well as in the countryside. Using dialect conveys no social or educational inferiority. There are specific settings where speaking Standard Greek is demanded or polite, e.g. in school classes (but not during breaks), in parliament, in TV news, in the presence of Greek-speaking foreigners, but outside of such settings two Cypriots do not speak Standard Greek with each other).

The modern Cypriot dialect is not an evolution of the ancient Arcadocypriot dialect, but evolved from koine. Cyprus was cut off from the rest of the Greek-speaking world from the 7th to the 10th century A.D due to Arab attacks. It was reintegrated in the Eastern Roman Empire in the 10th century to be isolated again in 1191 when it fell to the hands of crusaders. This linguistic isolation preserved a lot of early medieval greek characteristics that were lost in modern greek(e.g the pronunciation of double consonants).

The legislation (Assizes) of the Kingdom of Cyprus in the middle ages was written in the dialect. Other important medieval works are the chronicles of Leontios Makhairas and George Boustronios, and a collection of sonets in the manner of Francesco Petrarca.

In modern times, the dialect has been mainly used in poetry. Major poets are Vasilis Mihailidis and Dimitris Lipertis.