Cyprus

Cyprus has a population of 700,000. 80% of them are Greek-Cypriots and 20% are Turkish-Cypriots. The Greek-Cypriots speak Greek and the Turk-Cypriots speak Turkish.

The Greek that is spoken on Cyprus has retained some obsolete features that no longer occur in standard Greek. However, a speaker of standard Greek can still understand a Greek-Cypriot.

Quite a few Turk-Cypriots were bilingual in Turkish and Greek, before Turkey occupied the northern part of the island in 1974.

Armenians and Maronites are two small minorities on Cyprus, each consisting of a few thousand people. Armenians are bilingual in Armenian and Greek. The Maronites (who can also be found in Lebanon) originally spoke Arabic, but it is dying out. Today, the majority of the Maronites speak only Greek.

English is the second language taught in Greek-Cypriot schools. French and German are taught at the high school level. Armenian is the language of education in Armenian schools, and Greek is taught as a second language.