The Cypriot between practices and representations

Abstract

Cyprus is an island situated in the North-East of the Mediterranean. Since 1974, the year of the Turkish invasion of the north of the island, Cyprus has been divided into two parts: South Cyprus is mainly inhabited by Greek Cypriots and North Cyprus is mainly inhabited by Turkish Cypriots. Greek, Turkish and English are the official languages in Cyprus. Cypriot language is the mother tongue of Cypriots. The social discourse presents the territory in Cyprus as fragmented and broken by history. It is also marked by a
“hiérarchisation” on several levels: urban territory vs rural territory, popular district vs middle class district and Greek Cypriot territory vs Turkish Cypriot territory. Our main objective, in doing this research, is the study between standards and actual practices of Greek Cypriots. We are particularly interested in the social practices and discourses of Greek Cypriots about the territory, which is correlated with languages and also about the relations, which are described as closed, between the Greek and the Cypriot languages. We are also interested in the representations of Greek Cypriots about the status of the Cypriot language. We are doing a comparative study between the gender and the age of the Greek Cypriots who participated in this research.