Cypriots

Cypriots, the primitive inhabitants of Cyprus, originally Aryans, and most probably immigrants from Lycia, in Asia Minor, akin to the Hellenes, afterwards largely mixed with Phoenician elements, and ultimately Hellenised. The Cypriot language was distinct from Greek, and written in an archaic character, closely resembling that of the Lycian monuments, and in which each character represents a syllable and not merely one sound. Hence it is of importance in the history of writing. Its best relic is the bronze tablet of Dali, found about 1850, near the site of Idalium, and containing a perfect inscription of 30 lines. Of the present population (209,230 in 1891), 180,000 are still Greeks and Maronites, the rest nearly all Turks.