Linguistic Interaction

Up until the Haleppa Pact of 1878, Old Turkish (Ottoman Turkish written in Arabic script) was the official language of the bureaucracy, though Greek spoken in Cretan dialect was dominant in everyday life. Beyond the Christians, Greek speakers also included Cretan Muslims - indeed most of them had no knowledge of Turkish. In any event, one consequence of this bilingualism is the survival of Turkish-root words in Cretan dialect to this day, such as delikanis (delikanli = "mad blood" = boisterous youth).

Mutual linguistic influence is however most evident in family names. Many Turco-Cretans bore surnames of Greek or Cretan origin, such as Psychopedakis, Orfanakis, Hohlidis, Portokalakis and Ladakis. On the other hand, many Christian surnames had Turkish roots: Oustamanolakis (ousta = "master builder") Bitsaxakis (bicacki = "knife maker") Albantakis (nalbant = "farrier") Semertzakis (semerci = "saddler").