Cappadocian

The Cappadocian Greeks are the Greek-speaking population of Cappadocia, the plateau of central-eastern Anatolia around Nevşehir. Greek settlers followed Alexander the Great, and under the Hellenistic kings of Cappadocia and later Roman rule Greek became the region's common language, producing the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana.

Cappadocia remained a heartland of Byzantine Christianity, dotted with rock-cut churches and underground towns that served as refuges. After Manzikert in 1071 the Seljuk Turks overran the plateau and made Konya the capital of their Sultanate of Rum, bringing the Greeks under Turkish rule and gradual bilingualism.

In 1337 Cappadocia was divided among Turkish principalities, while Orthodox villages around Niğde kept a dialect heavily mixed with Turkish. Ottoman conquest of the Karamanid lands in the later fifteenth century incorporated the Greek communities into the empire, yet Cappadocian Greek remained in use, and Turkish was even written in Greek letters for religious texts.