Glotta - Zeitschrift fur Griechische und Lateinische Sprache

/'ent?e/, one of the two negative particles used in Cypriot Greek today, is of obscure origin; etymologies proposed so far do not hold water. It seems that /'ent?e/ should be analysed as a compound word, consisting pleonastically of two negatives, namely /'en/, commonly used in Cyprus, and /'ki/, with attestations only in Pontus. This is confirmed by the fact that both Cypriot /'ent?e/ and Pontic /'ki/ generate parallel syntactic structures, in which pronominal objects follow the verb; whereas with Cypriot /'en/ it is the verb that follows the pronominal object (as with Standard Modern Greek negative). There are good parallels both for the pleonastic combination of synonymous morphemes and for the transference of isolated morphemes into Cypriot Greek from neighbouring linguistic communities. As for the entry of /'ki/ from far-off Pontus into the Cypriot isogloss, it may date back to the 14th-16th centuries, when contacts between Cyprus and Anatolia seem to have become possible after a long period of isolation. A particularly favourable period for the introduction of Anatolian linguistic material into Cyprus was the period after 1571 or 1572, when the Ottoman authorities ordered Anatolian populations, including Christians, to be transferred to the island. � Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG. G?ttingen 2008.