page_title: Karamanlides
section_title: Language
hierarchical_section_title: Karamanlides / Language
caption_attribution_description: English: The inscription on the entrance of the former Greek-Orthodox church of Saint Helen (now Aya Elenia Müzesi) in Sille. Dated 12 February 1833, it is written in Karamanli Turkish (a form of Turkish written with Greek script). Transcription into Latin script: 327: tarihinde bu serrif (şerif) ekklisemizi (kilisemizi) Agia Eleni Mihail Arhangelos ismine kurdu temeli / hale ekklisiamizin (kilisemizin) üçüncü tamiri / Şefketlu Sultan Mahmud efendimiz ihsan eyleti emri / Epitropos Zarraf Xa (Hacı) Ilia oldu tekmil nazırı / Mihail Arhangelos'un sefaatiilan (şefaatı ile) Hak Taale / imdat edenlere ve zahmet çekenlere vere eciri. Sille 1833 Feb 12
context_page_description: The Karamanlides, or simply Karamanlis, are a Greek Orthodox, Turkish-speaking people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia. Today, a majority of the population live in Greece, though there is a sizeable diaspora in Western Europe and North America.
context_section_description: Historically, the Karamanlides spoke Karamanlı Turkish. Its vocabulary drew overwhelmingly from Turkic words with many Greek loan words. The language should not be confused with Cappadocian Greek, which was spoken in the same region during the same timeframe, but is derived from the Greek language.  While the official Ottoman Turkish was written in the Arabic script, the Karamanlides used the Greek alphabet for writing its form of Turkish. Such texts are called Karamanlidika (Καραμανλήδικα / Καραμανλήδεια γραφή) or Karamanlı Turkish today. Karamanlı Turkish had its own literary tradition and produced numerous published works in print in the 19th century, some of them published by Evangelinos Misailidis, by the Anatoli or Misailidis publishing house (Misailidis 1986, p. 134).
  Karamanlı writers and speakers were expelled from Turkey as part of the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923. Some speakers preserved their language in the diaspora. The writing form stopped being used immediately after the Turkish state adopted the Latin alphabet.
  A fragment of a manuscript written in Karamanlı was also found in the Cairo Geniza.
caption: An inscription in Karamanlı Turkish on the entrance of the former Greek Orthodox church of Agia Eleni in Sille, near Konya.
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