English in Cyprus or Cyprus English: An empirical investigation of variety status (Varieties of English Around the World)

This volume provides the first-ever comprehensive analysis of a potential variety of English, spoken in the Greek part of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Despite the fact that Cyprus was a British colony from 1878 to 1960, the status of the English language spoken there has not yet been discussed systematically within the framework of World Englishes. To determine whether English in Cyprus has second-language variety status or should rather be considered as learner English, the monograph investigates its historical, sociopolitical and sociolinguistic background and, drawing on a corpus of spoken data, offers a synchronic analysis of linguistic features. The results suggest to rethink some of the well-established taxonomies of World Englishes research, especially those that strictly differentiate between second-language varieties and learner Englishes. This renders the book relevant not only to scholars working in the field of World Englishes but also to second language acquisition researchers.