Do you speak Greek Cypriot

[J B]

Just remember that the A is a 'hard A' like cat/hat and not a soft A like hard

That means Tala is pronounced Tala and *NOT* Tarlar ............

[cyprusmax47]

Ooh if you want to learn how NOT to pronounce place names just listen to Rock FM - their adverts can be absolutely appalling!!

Yeah, you are right. I already told them, but to no avail. Most of them, male or female, have no idea even to pronounce Paphos OK.
(beside the girl in the morning which always laughs even when there is absolutely nothing to laugh about)

Max

[Robert]

So some of still listen to Rock FM. I loved it when the new station came on air and it is now our favorite. Sunshine Radio.

Whenever I'm in Cyprus Sunshine Radio is my station of choice.

Anecdotally, it must be one of the more popular stations for Expats in Cyprus. Every time I've picked up a hire car the radio is already set to Sunshine.

[galexinda]

An interesting topic as so many people sign up to Greek classes and say how good they are but hardly ever use the language. Just love it when I see the Cypriots, as the conversations and the handshakes remind me of how my parents used to greet friends and family every time they met.

[WHL]

Im sorry to say its us Brits being lazy and expecting everone to speak English....ask yourselves one thing, how is it that some of us have lived here for twenty - thirty years and can barely say kali mera//yet theres Eastern Europeans living here barely a year and they can speak fluent Greek.... I can get by if people speak slowly mainly because ive gone out of my way to mix with locals.

[trevnhil]

Eastern Europeans usually NEED to speak the language to get a job. Where as the people from the UK are mainly non working and get by with using English.

[PaphosAL]

Many of the so-called East Europeans emigrating to the Republic of Cyprus are from Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia, kingdoms around the Black Sea formerly conquered by Alexander the Great and his army and navy around 320 BC. So they can claim Greek heritage for Immigration.

As such, their mother tongue would most likely be Greek. But since WW2, many of them would have been forced to learn the cyrillic Russian language at school, in the old USSR communist era.

I would say that Hungarians (whose language is similar to Finnish) would struggle to learn Greek..

Cheers- AL

[PaphosAL]

I have to totally 100% agree with you regarding our French neighbours, Lloyd. Not only linguistally, but sheer bloody mindeness...

We often used to catch a very nice ferry from Rosslare in Ireland to Le Havre or Cherborg in France, in a 6 tonner carrying computer systems to Bulgaria. French Customs would always time their lunch break from the moment the ferry docked.

Meaning that all the commercial vehicle drivers were left sitting in a queue on the quayside for an hour, waiting to have their paperwork stamped by these pompous little fools. You could not beat their system, either...

For example, if you drove out of the docks without paperwork rubber-stamped and then drove through France and to the German or Spanish border (for example), the French there would simply refuse you exit and send you back to the port of entry!

[Dominic]

In my experience, the French like you to make an effort. So do the English.

However, if you want to meet nice French people, go out of the tourist areas. They are lovely then. I speak as somebody who used to go on cycling holidays through France, stopping at villages and looking for accommodation when I got there. The French in those places were lovely. They were only grotty when I went through places on the main tourist routes. Presumably they were grotty there because of rude tourists. I am not saying all tourists are rude, but it only takes the occasional one to tar everybody with the same brush.

Still think the best way to go through life is to great people with a smile. It doesn't matter where they are from then.

[Band]

My younger in-laws say Yia as a common greeting to one or many as we would say Hi!

Herede (HE- RE - DEH) can also be used but is an older style and not commonly used.

The best way to learn Paphian Greek is to mix with the locals although you may have to ask them to speak slowly and repeat things!

If you are in a shop, assistants will almost always say yiassas as that is a sign of respect to the customer. The more familiar version, pronounced h'yeredeh, is more common than you might think. I hear it daily and often use it myself.

I agree though that it is sometimes demoralising to speak to people in Greek only to have them reply in English every time.

[josef k]

I went to lessons but had difficulty practising as Cypriots either replied in English or asked me to speak English so they could understand me. When single I went out with a couple of Cypriot women who I asked to speak Greek to help me but kept forgetting and spoke English. Luckily my wife speaks Greek so, as with Jim, B, she acts as my interpreter.

[WHL]

Because the "Slavic" languages are more akin to Greek and indeed are related....so let's not knock the British too much shall we...although it does seem to be a hobby horse for some...I find Italian, Spanish, French so much easier to pick up...we try, but it's "all Greek to me" .

And the Polish people here ......are the slavic

[PaphosAL]

Let's not forget that Churchill and Rooesevelt agreed with Stalin at the Yalta Conference to 'move' Poland 300 miles westwards to sit between the Oder and Neisse river lines. What was previously Prussia, in fact.

Which accounts for all those gorgeous blonde-haired blue-eyed teutonic Polish gals shopping in Tesco, LOL! I bet their grandparents spoke German...

Cheers- AL

[Uncle D]

Probably of Nordic origin

[PaphosAL]

Probably of Nordic origin

From Poland? I don't somehow think so... Teutonic !!!

[Uncle D]

The Teutonic order were German Knights that fought against non Christian peoples during the 1300s. They were mainly based in North west Poland and North east Germany.
If you look at the north coast of Poland and the Baltic sea, there are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and lithuania.
A lot of these peoples are of Nordic origin. The vikings were around long before the Teutons and travelled far and wide. Apart from sailing to America they went down rivers to the Black sea and beyond, they named the now Ukraine, 'Russ', could be were we got Russia from. There are blonde blue eyed people there also.
Even the Normans were of Viking origin and so are Britain and Germany.

[Jim B]

Because the "Slavic" languages are more akin to Greek and indeed are related....so let's not knock the British too much shall we...although it does seem to be a hobby horse for some...I find Italian, Spanish, French so much easier to pick up...we try, but it's "all Greek to me" .

And the Polish people here ......are the slavic

Apart from using the Cyrillic alphabet there is no relation between Russian and Greek languages, Russian is Baltic Slavic and Greek is a Mediterranean Hellenic Language and Poles speak a Western Slavic.

https://www.google.com.cy/search?rlz=1C ... 7qtLj8LS24

https://www.google.com.cy/search?q=what ... e&ie=UTF-8

Jim

[WHL]

Because the "Slavic" languages are more akin to Greek and indeed are related....so let's not knock the British too much shall we...although it does seem to be a hobby horse for some...I find Italian, Spanish, French so much easier to pick up...we try, but it's "all Greek to me" .

And the Polish people here ......are the slavic

Apart from using the Cyrillic alphabet there is no relation between Russian and Greek languages, Russian is Baltic Slavic and Greek is a Mediterranean Hellenic Language and Poles speak a Western Slavic.

https://www.google.com.cy/search?rlz=1C ... 7qtLj8LS24

https://www.google.com.cy/search?q=what ... e&ie=UTF-8

Jim

Good Post..

[Dominic]

The reason more English don't learn Greek is laziness, pure and simple.

But what is so bad about admitting that? There is no necessity to learn Greek to survive in Cyprus. If there was, I am sure we would all (myself included) be learning it with a lot more vigour.

It is impolite not to learn the language of the local population, but fortunately for us, the Cypriots seem very tolerant. Far more so than most Brits (and French!).

What we cannot do, as monolingual expats, is moan at people moving to the UK without learning to speak the language. That is just blatant hypocrisy! We have lost that right. If we want it back we need to learn Greek.

I would dearly love to learn Greek properly, and I am getting better slowly, but without there being a necessity to learn it, it becomes much harder to grasp.

[Uncle D]

Some years ago, we were in Neos, I said epharisto to the waitress, a woman next to us said 'this is Peyia, we only speak English here'.
I replied in English 'speak for yourself'.