Exploring linguistic hybridity and lexical creativity in the UK’s Greek Cypriot diaspora: the Grenglish project

Karatsareas, P. and Charalambidou, A. 2020. Exploring linguistic hybridity and lexical creativity in the UK’s Greek Cypriot diaspora: the Grenglish project. Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes. 50, p. 431–456.

TitleExploring linguistic hybridity and lexical creativity in the UK’s Greek Cypriot diaspora: the Grenglish project
TypeJournal article
AuthorsKaratsareas, P. and Charalambidou, A.
Abstract

We present findings from the Grenglish Project, a public engagement initiative that brought together members of the UK’s Greek Cypriot diaspora in a crowdsourcing effort to collect linguistic material that reflected the community’s linguistic history. After a brief sociohistorical overview of Cypriot migration to the UK, we present the types of material contributors submitted to the project website with reference to parallel developments in Greek migrant varieties spoken in other parts of the world. We focus on English loanwords that were integrated into the morphological system of Cypriot Greek by the addition of native derivational and inflectional suffixes like πάσον /páson/ ‘bus’ and πασέρης /paséris/ ‘bus driver’. We finally consider the implications of the project’s findings for the status of British Cypriot Greek as a variety on its own right and address the ideological and attitudinal factors that shape the prospects for its intergenerational transmission.

Résumé. Cet article présente les résultats obtenus par le Grenglish Project, une initiative publique qui réunissait des membres de la diaspora chypriote grecque au Royaume-Uni dans le but de rassembler sur une large échelle une documentation linguistique reflétant l’histoire linguistique de cette communauté. Après un bref bilan socio-historique sur l’immigration chypriote au Royaume-Uni nous présentons les profils des principaux contributeurs au site web de ce projet, par comparaison avec le développement parallèle des variantes du grec parlées dans d’autres parties du monde. Nous mettons l’accent sur les mots d’emprunt qui ont été intégrés dans le système morphologique du grec chypriote avec l’adjonction de suffixes adaptés aux inflexions de la langue maternelle, comme πάσον /páson/ ‘bus’ et πασέρης /paséris/ ‘chauffeur de bus’. Nous examinons enfin les conséquences des résultats de ce projet sur le statut du grec chypriote britannique comme une variante indépendante, et nous relevons les facteurs idéologiques et comportementaux qui définissent les perspectives de sa transmission entre les générations.

KeywordsCypriot Greek
diaspora
Grenglish
borrowing
language contact
loanwords
JournalCahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes
Journal citation50, p. 431–456
ISSN2647-7300
Year2020
PublisherMAE
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled (open metadata, closed files)
Publication dates
Published05 Oct 2021

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