Language attitudes and use in a transplanted setting: Greek Cypriots in London

In this paper we explore language attitudes and use in the Greek Cypriot community in London, England. Our study is based on an earlier survey carried out in Nicosia, Cyprus and we compare attitudes to language and reported language use in the two communities. We thereby highlight the significance of sociolinguistic variables on similar groups of speakers. We further extend our investigation to include codeswitching practices in the London community. \ud Analysis of language attitudes and use within the Greek-Cypriot population of London, and comparisons with findings in Nicosia, reflect symbolic forces operating in the two contexts. Despite obvious differences between the two communities, (most obviously the official languages and distinct cultural backgrounds of the two nations), the Greek Cypriot Dialect continues to play an active role in both. English is however the ‘default choice‘ for young Cypriots in the UK and Standard Modern Greek occupies a much more limited role than in Cyprus. It is argued that differences in language attitudes and use can be interpreted in light of different market forces operating in the nation (i.e. Cyprus) and the Diaspora (i.e. UK)

Fehmiet il-kontributuri : Lydia Sciriha

Din il-pubblikazzjoni tiġbor fiha l-fehmiet ta’ 28 ruħ fuq l-użu tal-Malti u tal-Ingliż fis-sistema edukattiva ta’ pajjiżna. L-awturi tagħhom kienu ntalbu mill-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti jagħtu fehmiethom biex ikunu ta’ għajnuna fid-diskussjoni. It-tweġiba mħeġġa għal din is-sejħa kif ukoll il-varjetà u l-validità ta’ ħafna mill-argumenti ħajru lill-Kunsill jippubblikahom f’din il-ġabra. Madanakollu, il-Kunsill jixtieq jagħmilha ċara li l-fehmiet imfissra f’din il-ġabra huma biss tal-awturi tagħhom u bl-ebda mod ma għandhom jitqiesu bħala l-fehma uffiċjali tal-Kunsill. Il-Kunsill tal-Malti jemmen li – għalkemm l-istatus bilingwi ta’ pajjiżna huwa rikonoxxut u mniżżel fil-Kostituzzjoni – għad baqgħalna triq twila ta’ diskussjoni qabel ma nibdew nagħtu tweġibiet ċari u konsistenti għall-ħafna mistoqsijiet dwar il-politika lingwistika li jaqgħu fi triqitna. Filwaqt li jifraħ li qiegħed jagħti sehmu biex tinbeda din id-diskussjoni hekk meħtieġa, il-Kunsill jixtieq juri l-apprezzament tiegħu għall-kontribut ta’ kull min perreċ fehemtu u b’hekk għen biex id-diskussjoni tkun iktar mifruxa u t-tweġibiet iktar maturi. Il-pubblikazzjoni ta’ din il-ġabra hija messaġġ ċar mill-Kunsill lil kull min jgħożż il-ġid lingwistiku ta’ artna li f’dan id-dibattitu l-fehma ta’ kull wieħed minna tiswa. Il-Kunsill tal-Malti jistieden lil kulħadd, edukaturi, ġurnalisti, opinjonisti, imma l-aktar lill-ġenituri u l-ulied infushom, biex ikomplu jissieħbu f’din id-diskussjoni ħielsa biex il-futur lingwistiku ta’ pajjiżna jkun iktar ċar u r-riżultati tal-edukazzjoni ta’ wliedna iktar effettivi u dejjiema.N/

Extremal Singular Graphs

A graph is called singular if its adjacency matrix is singular. The problem of characterizing all singular graphs was posed in 1957 by L. Collatz and U. Sinogowitz. Since then, it has been studied intensely due to its great importance in mathematics and in chemistry. However, the problem has proved to be rather complicated and has not yet been solved completely. In this paper, we emphasize on some of the most important results on graphs that are extremal with regard to their nullity/rank. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG