Nestled in the heart of modern-day Turkey lies Cappadocia, a fascinating region that is surprisingly rich in history and renowned for its uniquely beautiful and captivating landscape.
However, Cappadocia is also home to a hidden linguistic treasure of the Greek past: the Cappadocian Greek dialect.
This distinct variety of the Greek language developed in what is today central Turkey from the Byzantine era until the 1920s. As it is understood, it was heavily influenced by the Turkish language following the 11th-century Seljuk conquest of the region and the gradual loss of its Greek elements.
Once it was thought that this unique dialect had been totally extinct following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, however, pockets of Cappadocian Greek speakers are still being discovered in Greece as late as the early 21st century. This surprising development spurred many efforts to preserve this endangered dialect and bring it back to life to preserve the variety and richness of the Greek language in its entirety.
The Greek presence in Cappadocia dates back to the Hellenistic period in the 2nd-3rd centuries BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the establishment of Macedonian Greek rule in the wider Anatolian peninsula.
During the Eastern Roman era, known today as the Byzantine period, Greek became the dominant language of the region. By the 5th century AD, Greek was the language spoken by the authorities and the majority of the people alike.
However, the dialect began to diverge from the basic form of Medieval Greek after the 1071 Battle of Manzikert and the subsequent Seljuk conquest, which paved the way for the Ottoman presence in the region. Developing in relative isolation from other Greek dialects that were closer to the epicenters of the Greek world, such as Constantinople and Thessalonica, Cappadocian Greek retained some archaic features but also changed in ways that other dialects of Greek didn’t.
From the 11th all the way to the 20th century, Cappadocian Greek was increasingly influenced by Turkish. This influence was focused on its phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, giving it a distinct nature that blended Greek and the language spoken by the Turks.
By the early 20th century, most Cappadocian Greeks had shifted to speaking Turkish entirely, and those who retained the dialect often used a different version: The Karamanli Turkish, a form of Turkish language that was, surprisingly enough, written in the Greek alphabet.
As we have seen, the Cappadocian Greek dialect shows a unique mixture of Greek and Turkish linguistic features. Its phonology includes many Turkish vowels such as i, ö, and ü, as well as consonants like b, d, g, š, ž, tš, and dž, elements that are either not found in Greek or used rarely. Furthermore, the morphology of the Cappadocian Greek shows a combination of Greek inflection and Turkish agglutination, while its syntax follows the Turkish SOV (Subject, Object, Verb) word order instead of the Greek SVO (Subject, Verb, Object)
The vocabulary of Cappadocian Greek contains many loanwords from Turkish, especially function words. The various, slightly different versions of the Cappadocian Greek form a continuum. Some of them are closer to Greek and others closer to Turkish. The most heavily Turkicized varieties are sometimes considered mixed languages rather than Greek dialects, as the heavy influence of Turkish changed the core of the dialects that can no longer be considered Greek.
UNESCO lists Cappadocian Greek as critically endangered, with about 2,800 active speakers in Greece as of 2015. Linguists had thought the dialect was extinct until the remaining speakers were discovered in the early 2000s. This discovery led to the launch of fieldwork and documentation projects aimed at recording the dialect before its disappearance in an attempt to save it from oblivion.
Linguists are working closely with Cappadocian Greek communities in Greece to support these language maintenance efforts in this noble attempt to preserve a part of the history of Hellenism that is largely disconnected from the geographical location of its origin. In contrast to older speakers, younger generation Cappadocian Greeks in Greece have shown positive attitudes towards their language heritage. This is the main reason why revitalization efforts aim to reverse the language shift to mainstream Greek and preserve Cappadocian for future generations, who should learn more about the rich history of their ancestors.
Today, Cappadocian Greek is growing fainter as a living organism. However, thanks to the tireless efforts of researchers and community advocates alike, this linguistic treasure of the depths of Anatolia is being documented and celebrated like never before, in a noble effort to preserve centuries of proud Greek presence in lands long gone. By recording the stories and songs of the last Cappadocian Greek speakers, researchers don’t just save a dialect – they’re safeguarding an irreplaceable piece of human heritage.
Another crucial and genuinely fascinating aspect of the richness of the linguistic landscape in Cappadocia was the presence of the Karamanlides. This truly unique group of Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox Christians not only spoke Turkish but also wrote in Turkish using the Greek alphabet. This was a writing system that became known as Karamanlidika.
The exact origins and the roots of the Karamanlides are disputed among scholars as the evidence is scarce. The main working theories are that they may be descendants of Byzantine Greeks who were gradually Turkified linguistically following the invasions of the Turks in the Middle Ages, who, nonetheless, retained their Christian faith and use of the Greek alphabet. Another hypothesis is that they were the descendants of Turkic soldiers who settled in the region after the conquests of the Turks. This theory suggests that as they mixed with the local populations, these Turkic populations converted to Christianity and also started using the Greek alphabet that was predominant there, without switching languages.
Irrespective of their exact origin, the Karamanlides group developed a fascinating and unique identity. Considering themselves Turkish both in terms of spoken language as well as culture but at the same time firmly Greek Orthodox Christian in religion, they became an interesting example of peaceful mixing between the Greek and the Turkish populations that resided in Anatolia. This proud group of people even printed religious books and carved numerous inscriptions in their distinctive Turkish-in-Greek letters script. Like the rest of the Cappadocian Greeks, most of the Karamanlides group were violently forced to leave Anatolia for mainland Greece and its islands as part of the population exchange of 1923. As it is understood, there they faced significant challenges integrating into mainstream Greek society due to their Turkish language and identity. Interestingly enough, Greece had a Prime Minister called Kostas Karamanlis from 2004 to 2009. His name indicates that his family most probably had family roots in this group of Anatolia.
The unfortunate plight of Cappadocian Greek –as well as other endangered minority languages– shows clearly the importance of language preservation efforts in Greece and worldwide. Linguists estimate that anywhere between 50 and 90 percent of the world’s approximately 7000 languages may go extinct by the end of our century in 2100. This would result in irreplaceable cultural knowledge and unique perspectives being lost forever in what could be a devastating cultural loss.
Emerging technologies and AI tools, including social media and language-learning applications offer new ways of action to make endangered languages relevant to the youth and therefore preserve them from total extinction. While the difficulties remain huge and the challenges continue to be steep, intense collaboration between communities, academics, governments, and NGOs, can actually make a difference. They can help sustain Greece’s vibrant linguistic diversity for the next generations and showcase the richness of the Greek dialects. The story of the rediscovery of Cappadocian Greek and the protection of the unique identity of the Karamanlides group reminds us of the importance of focusing on the humans behind the statistics.
