History
Like all other modern Greek dialects except Tsakonian and, to some extent, Griko, Cretan evolved from Koine. Its structure and vocabulary have preserved different features than standard Greek, due to the distance of Crete from the main Greek centers.
There are also influences from other languages. The conquest of Crete by the Andalusian Moors in 824 left mainly toponyms. However, Venetian influence proved to be stronger since the island remained under Venetian control for nearly five centuries. To this day, many toponyms, names and words stem from the Venetian language of early modern times, which came to reinforce the Latin influence from antiquity and the early Byzantine Empire. Following the Ottoman conquest of 1669, Turkish words entered the vocabulary of Cretans as well. Borrowings, as usual, are mainly lexical; Arabic, Turkish, and Venetian had little or no effect on grammar and syntax. With the beginning of the 20th century and the evolution of technology and tourism, English, French and German terms are widely used.
Read more about this topic: Cretan Greek
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“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)