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In: Rudolf Muhr (ed.) (2012): Non-dominant Varieties of pluricentric Languages. Getting the Picture. In memory of Michael Clyne. Wien et. al., Peter Lang Verlag. p. 167-186. Marilena KARYOLEMOU (University of Cyprus, Cyprus) makar@ucy.ac.cy Cypriot Greek as a non dominant variety of Greek Abstract In this paper, I present the current sociolinguistic situation of the Cypriot Greek variety spoken in Cyprus. I briefly describe the position of Cypriot Greek within the Hellenic speaking world; I subsequently present recent developments in the area of language policy and planning as regards Cypriot Greek; I finally discuss its status as a non- dominant variety of Greek. As a corollary, I also briefly comment on the status of Greek as a pluricentric language. 1. Introduction This paper is about the Greek variety spoken on the island of Cyprus. Cypriot Greek is considered as a member of the group of north-eastern dialects of Greek. Several other classifications have also been proposed for Cypriot Greek: according to Contossopoulos (1980a), for instance, if we consider the Greek state as the core area of the Hellenic speaking world, Cypriot Greek could be regarded as a geographically peripheral variety, together with Apulian and Calabrese Greek or the Greek varieties of the Black Sea; it can also be classified as a dialect of “inda” (“inda” being the word for “what” (instead of “ti” in standard Greek and in other northern Greek dialects), a classification inspired by the traditional distinction for French between “langue d’oc” and “langue d’oil” (Contossopoulos 1980b). This...