UCY, ’s Second Science Café dispels Cypriot dialect myths
The Second Science Café, organized by the University of Cyprus (UCY) with support from the Bank of Cyprus (BoC), aimed to dispel myths about the Cypriot dialect. The event took place on February 29 at Aglantzia’s Caffè Nero, featuring UCY Lecturer in Linguistics Spyros Armostis and author Antonis Georgiou as hosts. Armostis emphasized the importance of public engagement in scientific and artistic discourse regarding language, while Georgiou discussed the freedom of choosing a linguistic medium for self-expression and the value of effective language use over form. They addressed topics such as language usage in education, the Cypriot dialect’s ability to convey complex ideas, its relationship with modern Greek, and the importance of its preservation. Armostis holds a PhD and MPhil in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, specializing in phonetics, phonology, socio-linguistics, and clinical linguistics, with research in Cypriot Greek and Cypriot Arabic. Georgiou, a Limassol-based lawyer with a prolific literary career, has received national and international acclaim, including prestigious awards and theatrical adaptations of his novels. The University of Cyprus organizes Science Cafés and a Science Talks podcast series on Spotify to promote informal scientist-public interactions and combat misinformation.