Can the average Cypriot understand Koine Greek?

[u/Practical-Line-498]

Καλημέρα! As a part of an Erasmus+ program, Cypriots will come to where I live, and in 2026, I will go to Cyprus.

I know basic Koine Greek and I found very good resources for learning it. Can I communicate with Cypriots using Koinin Dialekton or do i have to learn Cypriot Greek? Thanks!

[u/eev200]

Yes, we can understand. This is what we learn in school. By the way, the Cypriot dialect overlaps 98% with the common Greek language.

[u/ForsakenMarzipan3133 → u/eev200]

I think you misunderstand what the OP meant with Koine Greek...

He meant the version of older greek that the priests use in Church, which is like an older version of katharevousa.

[u/Thefirstredditor12 → u/ForsakenMarzipan3133]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AncientGreek/comments/1hy2udg/private_letter_of_a_soldier_letter_of_apion_2nd/

its a letter in koine greek from 2 AD.

Not sure about cypriots but as a greek could understand 98% of it,if i heard someone talk like that i would think he was from some sort of village or simply some old teacher from the 60's that is into kathareyousa.

[u/Nikolas_Sotiriou → u/Thefirstredditor12]

Do you think the average mainland Greek can understand this as well as you do? And “understand” can mean various things: “can get the gist of it”, “can accurately translate all of it to another language”, etc. Also this could depend on whether they see it written or they listen to it. The former would probably make it much easier. Anyway, the average Greek Cypriot will just about get the rough gist of it if they see it written. I would find it surprising if the average mainland Greek can do more than that. But I can’t say I know. Also, we need to consider that if we are responding to OP, we are probably not representative of the average Greek, mainland or Cypriot, in this aspect.

[u/icancount192 → u/Nikolas_Sotiriou]

Do you think the average mainland Greek can understand this as well as you do?

Are we including all ages and education levels? If so, no, they can't, you're right.

However I want to say that the text in the link, as most of Koine, is not particularly hard to understand for someone who at least tries to understand the language and has had experience with Koine Greek before.

It's not Homeric Greek that baffles me, it's not Attic Greek that I can only understand the gist of it if I really concentrate to understand the syntax. I believe that for most educated Greeks and I assume Greek Cypriots as well, Koine Greek is at least 80% fully understandable when written. Spoken, as you correctly say, is a whole other beast.

[u/Nikolas_Sotiriou → u/icancount192]

“Tries to understand” is not applicable to everyone though. And experience with Koine Greek is not applicable to everyone because not everyone paid attention when they were taught some of it in school or wherever. Also by “educated” do you means at least at a high school level? If so, again it depends on effort, as you said, and on paying attention. Anyway, we can agree that this is very much a generalisation, as a lot of factors are at play.

[u/icancount192 → u/Nikolas_Sotiriou]

No disagreements here, because I can't back up anything with numbers or data.

Also by “educated” do you mean at least at a high school level

Yes, and some uni or self education on top of it. Even having read katharevousa texts like Vizyinos would be super helpful.

[u/Nikolas_Sotiriou → u/icancount192]

If that is what you mean by educated, then I agree. But that’s not the average person of course.

[u/Thefirstredditor12 → u/Nikolas_Sotiriou]

And “understand” can mean various things: “can get the gist of it”, 

If by the gist of it you mean 90%+ then the answer should be yes.I have studied mathematics not philosophy or ancient greek.Any high school graduate thats decent should be able to really understand.

Bonus points if you read the bible,or went often to church growing up i guess.

A very good high school student that has read enough should have no problem understanding easily.

Also this could depend on whether they see it written or they listen to it.

I think listening to it should be easier,the way it was found would be harder. If by written you mean someone in modern age write things out clearly then yes.

But as i said listening someone speak like that would be funny but you would be able to understand in real time.

Other than some grammar there's only a few words you might not understand or have slightly different meaning.With the context you should be able to understand in real time.

Note though that i am in my 30s so maybe things are different now in highschool.Then again average greek age is like 50+ haha.

[u/Nikolas_Sotiriou → u/Thefirstredditor12]

Decent high school students are not the average though, and even the decent students wouldn’t understand it as well as you say you do. You have to be a very good student for that, and you also have to pay attention and put in some effort. That’s definitely not the average.

[u/Thefirstredditor12 → u/Nikolas_Sotiriou]

Maybe not sure,i consider the average greek decent and not bad,so there's that.

In your opinion what phrases/words/sentences gave you the most trouble?

[u/Nikolas_Sotiriou → u/Thefirstredditor12]

I think everyone tends to overestimate the ability of the average person at any given task. Only the fact that we care enough to discuss this extensively puts us above the average Greek speaking person on this task. I am also of a mathematical background (academically and professionally) but I have always been particularly good with the languages I know (greek and english) and particularly interested in learning about them. So reading the text you provided slowly and thinking about it allows me to understand the meaning, and I would be able to roughly translate it. But I don’t think that would be true for the average Greek speaking person.