Cypriot Roma 1913 colorized. The Cypriot Roma by the 1960 constitution are considered to be a part of TC community. They speak Cypriot Turkish or a variety of Cypriot Greek called Gurbetcha. In Yalya they were called Gilinjirez or Gurbetiyez there also were Christian roma called Mantidez.

6 comments

  3. Gilinjiros/Gilinjiroi(plural)/Gilinjira(female)/Gilinjires(f-plural) are words used in Greek Cypriot

    I think everyone knows these words^. We use these words as an insult too (not sure if many knew the words originally referred to Roma ppl)

    What I think other users missed from your post is Gurbetcha. So in greek(cyprus always) we use the word gurubettos-gurubettisa/κουρούπεττος-κουρουπέττισα(gurubeti(/ez) plural) as an insult which is a synonymous to kkillinjiros or gyftos.

    All these are synonymous and might be used together. E.g When my room was veery messy(or I left my clothes/socks on the floor) my mom would tell me “Are you kkilinjiros?”/”You are gurubettos”

    In my house we have an extra synonymous ‘insult’, which is Dilliros/Tylliros(Τυλλιρος) that can be used like the other 2-3 words-it might be a bit lighter-(which means that Dilliri/Tylloiroi were seen as kilinjiroi by some?). The most common example used in my house was when I was walking barefoot my mom would ask me “Why do you walk barefoot? Are you Dilliros?/Ιντα παρπατας ανυπολυτος, είσαι τίποτε Τυλλιρος:” I wonder if anyone else heard of this

    Awesome post as always

  4. Was there a lot of Mandides in Larnaka? I seem to remember a long time ago at football games with pezoporikos (a larnaka team) they would call the larnaka fans mandies in a kind of derogatory way. I didn’t know where it came from until now. Interesting stuff.

  6. A correction would be, Muslim Roma/travellers are considered to be part of TC community. Orthodox ones, who were a minority and barely exist anymore, were part of GCs by default.

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