Aesop’s fables in the Greek Cypriot dialect

Those who want to combine Christmas gifts with knowledge might consider a new book, a version of Aesop’s fables written in the Greek Cypriot dialect.

The book, To Liontarin, o Lykos tzi’o Aloupos, (The Lion, The Wolf and the Fox) is an adaptation of one of Aesop’s fables.

Its creator, Iakovos Hadjipieris, found an innovative way of introducing a script for the Greek Cypriot dialect by including in the story the appearance of many animals to cover all the letters of the Greek alphabet from Alpha to Omega and how they are pronounced in Cypriot.

“The lion fell seriously ill and called on all the animals in the forest to go to him and each tell him a remedy so that he can be cured. So, all the animals started to gather around him…,” the story goes.

“Of course, the only one who failed to show up, was the fox. The wolf, the bitter one, who did not like the fox, told on him to the lion. But the fox, sly as he is, will he manage to escape the lion’s wrath?” Hadipieris invites us to find out.

“Just as we speak our dialect, we also have the possibility of reading it and writing it,” Hadjipieris told the Sunday Mail. He added that academics had not yet provided a common code of how to write the Greek Cypriot dialect.

“Greek and the Greek Cypriot dialect can harmoniously co-exist in Cyprus. We can read and write both in Greek and the Cypriot dialect,” he said.

A fervent supporter and user of the local dialect, Hadjipieris is the man behind the translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s, The Little Prince, in Greek Cypriot two years ago.

He saw it as an opportunity to make Cypriot readers realise “that we can welcome any international work, by any writer, into our dialect.”

His work also prompted two Turkish Cypriots, work on the same story, a year later and release the Little Prince, in their dialect as well, which was very well received in the north.

To Liontarin, o Lykos tzi’o Aloupos, may be found at Parga and Solonion book shops for €10 or purchased directly from Hadjipieris ([email protected]) .

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.