1 LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AMONG RUSSIANS OF GREEK ORIGIN TOWARDS THE LINGUISTIC VARIETY IN THE CYPRIOT GREEK SPEECH COMMUNITY Pavlos Pavlou & Dionysios Zoumpalidis University of Cyprus Abstract The study of the linguistic repertoire of the members of a particular speech community reveals linguistic properties such as unique and diverse language practices, the nature and the degree of interaction within the social networks, and the common linguistic norms of the group. From this point of view, the Pontic Greek immigrants, who moved from the former Soviet Union republics to Cyprus in the early and mid 1990s, are of particular interest to sociolinguistic research. Pontic Greeks, who possess a rather rich linguistic repertoire, tend to use specific language(s) in specific domains which is dictated by instrumental and/or integrative processes. The exposure as well as partial integration into the Cypriot Greek community and culture has undoubtedly enriched the linguistic profile of Pontic Greeks during and after the settlement period in Cyprus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Taking into consideration the Greek roots of Pontic Greeks, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Greek language 1 plays one of the major roles in the life of Pontic Greeks as an important factor in the confirmation and reaffirmation processes of the Greek (or Pontic Greek) identity. 2 The languages employed by the members of this speech community are usually Russian, Turkish 3 and Greek. It must be noted, however, that each language is developed and used accordingly in terms of proficiency depending on factors such as age, geographical distribution (country of origin), domain, education, social networks, length of residence in Greece and/or Cyprus and the language attitudes towards the various languages they speak or come in contact with in their mundane interactions. In this paper, we argue that Pontic Greeks in Cyprus tend to show preference towards the Standard Modern Greek (SMG) rather than the Cypriot Greek 1 Also read Standard Modern Greek (SMG). 2 It should be noted that the majority of Pontic Greeks (46%) identify themselves as Greeks (Zoumpalidis, in press). 3 The Turkish language that Pontic Greeks speak has some lexical and syntactic differences compared to the Turkish language spoken today in Turkey. Kolossov et al (2000) argue, in this respect, that the Turkish language that Pontic Greeks speak is an eastern Turkish dialect.