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Erasure as a Means of Maintaining Diglossia in Cyprus

Arvaniti, Amalia (2006) Erasure as a Means of Maintaining Diglossia in Cyprus. San Diego Linguistics Papers, 2 . pp. 25-38. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:45936)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4q90b3fm#

Abstract

The Greek speech community of Cyprus is characterized by classic diglossia, with the local varieties forming the L, and Standard Greek the H. It is argued here that this diglossic situation is maintained against what the sociopolitical and economic conditions would predict, because the prevailing linguistic ideology—according to which Cypriots are ethnically Greek, an ethnic identity that is primarily defined by the use of (an almost uniform) Greek language—has led to the erasure of diglossia. The case of Cyprus shows that linguistic ideology and the role of language in indexing ethnicity may be crucial for the maintenance of diglossia in some linguistic communities and may prove more powerful than socio-economic conditions in sustaining the linguistic status quo.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Amalia Arvaniti
Date Deposited: 10 Dec 2014 10:44 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:18 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/45936 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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