It would be a toss up whether it would be easier to learn Greek or Turkish, not that our decision on where to spend our time was in any way language dependent. The chief disadvantage to Greek is the Greek alphabet. Do not badly with capitals or even lower case - slowly - but script is another matter. Though some people’s handwriting in English is pretty discouraging too. Turkish, happily, uses the Roman alphabet - probably the biggest favour Ataturk did his people. But there the simplicity ends. It’s not an Indo-European language and therefore only loan words - of which, fortunately, there are a fair number - look familiar. The Foreign Services Institute, used by diplomats, ranks both languages four out of five on a scale of difficulty, estimating forty-four weeks to achieve fluency. Similar to Russian or Vietnamese but easier than Chinese or Arabic.Have no expectation of becoming fluent but a few words and phrases always helpful.
Both Cypriot Turkish and Cypriot Greek are variants on the mainland versions, if not actual dialects. Beverley, whose Turkish was acquired while she was teaching in Istanbul, says locals here told her she “talked posh”. Apparently Cypriot Turkish is a blend of Ottoman Turkish and a dialect from the Taurus mountains in southern Turkey, with added bits of Greek, English, Italian, French, and Arabic. But mutually intelligible with standard Turkish. Think Glaswegian and Texan - or maybe better not.
Cypriot Greek in some ways more interesting. The short explanation is that modern Greek has evolved considerably from Ancient Greek - in many ways changing more in the process than Cypriot Greek has, with Cypriot Greek retaining more elements of the ancient language while incorporating English, Turkish, Latin, Italian and Arabic words. Bringing to mind the English language in the UK and America. Usage that Brits complain is American” is frequently just older - sometimes much older - British use.
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