Writing in a non-standard Greek variety: Romanized Cypriot Greek in online chat

Themistocleous, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0657-1376 (2010) Writing in a non-standard Greek variety: Romanized Cypriot Greek in online chat. Writing Systems Research, 2 (2). pp. 155-168. ISSN 1758-6801 doi: 10.1093/wsr/wsq008

Abstract/Summary

Cypriot Greek, a variety of Greek spoken in the island of Cyprus, is relatively distinct from Standard Greek in all linguistic domains. The regional variety does not have a standard, official orthography and it is rarely used for everyday written purposes. Following technological development and the emergence of Computer-mediated Communication, a Romanized version of written CG is now widely used in online text-based communication, among teenagers and young adults (Themistocleous, C. (2008), The use of Cypriot-Greek in synchronous computer-mediated communication (PhD thesis), University of Manchester). In this study, I present the innovative ways that Greek-Cypriots use Roman characters in an effort to represent features of their spoken language in their online writings. By analysing data obtained from channel #Cyprus of Internet Relay Chat, I demonstrate how the choice of writing in CG affects the ways that Roman characters are used. I argue that this practice is not just a response to technological constrains but it actually has a wider social significance.