Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation

This study explores language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation in the Greek-Cypriot context. In this paper focus group interviews were conducted in tertiary education to examine: (1) language attitudes towards four broad register levels of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and (2) how these influence and are reflected in subjects’ evaluation of own speech. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results reveal that subjects evaluate negatively users of basilectal features of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and avoid their use in their attempt to maintain a positive social identity.