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The Cretan dialect is related to the idiom of the Peloponnese and the Cyclades, whereas the Cypriot dialect, together with the group of the South Sporades, belongs to the south-eastern dialect group it does, however, exhibit some common features with the dialect groups of Asia Minor, Southern Italy and Crete. The similarities between the Cretan and the Cypriot dialect appear more obvious during the medieval period, when both islands were under the rule of Western powers: the Venetians and the Franks respectively. Communication between the two may also have increased at this time. In order to ascertain the degree of convergence of the two dialects, phonetic and structural elements are compared, based on contemporary literary texts and other linguistic monuments.
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