History of conquest:

Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina started in 1384. The Ottomans finally
occupied Kingdom of Bosnia almost 80 years later in 1463. Herzegovina fell under the same
rule in 1482. Due to the way by which Kingdom of Bosnia fell under Ottoman rule (the noble
men of Bosnia were in conflict; the Hungarian king and the Pope refused to give help to
Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević so the Turks had no difficulties to take over the main cities
of Bobovac, Jajce and Ključ, and to kill the king) there is still a proverb from that time ‘Bosna
šaptom pade’ (Bosnia fell in silence). Of course, conquerors brought their own culture and
customs when they came to this area. It is also very important to mention that Turks used very
violent way in spreading their customs, religion and language. For example, it is a common
knowledge that all the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who did not want to renounce their
religion (Catholic or Orthodox) and accept Islam as their new religion were treated as the
citizens of the lower rank. Their properties were taken away from them, and many people
migrated to the parts of Croatia which were not under Ottoman occupation. The Ottoman rule
lasted for over than 400 years, until the Congress of Berlin which was held in 1878. On that
congress was decided that Austria-Hungary will take over Bosnia and Herzegovina. But
Austria-Hungary took Bosnia and Herzegovina under complete control in 1908, after
provoking the Bosnian crisis and annexing the occupied zone.

Turkish influence on language:

The words of Turkish origin are mostly used in shotkavian dialect. Many of those
words entered the standard language, and they are no more considered to be loanwords due
they assimilated to Croatian language. But also, there are many Turkish loanwords used in
other dialects (chakavian and kajkavian), or they are used in some other parts of the country.
Not all the words that are considered under the term ‘Turkish words’ are really Turkish. Many
of them are Persian, Arabic, or Ancient Greek origin. They are called ‘Turkish words’
because they are transmitted to our language by Turks. Of course, most of those words
changed phonologically, morphologically, syntactically, and semantically. In the chart below
can be seen the words that are used in standard language.
 Croatian Turkish Persian Arabic Greek English
bakar bakır copper
bubreg böbrek kidney
budala budala badal fool
dadilja dadi dādā nanny
jastuk yastık pillow
krevet kerevet kreváti bed
kutija kûtu kouti box
majmun maymun maimūn monkey
oluk oluk gutter
papuča pabuç pāpūs slipper
rakija raki arak 'brandy'
šećer şeker sekar sugar
tavan tavan attic
torba torba bag

Phonological changes can be seen by adding some letters that are used in Croatian alphabet
(like ‘č’, ‘ć’, ‘š’). Also, it can be seen that some suffixes are added to the base in some words
(like in ‘kutija’ where the suffix ‘ja’ is added to base ‘kûtu’ i.e. ‘kuti’ in Croatian). On the
other hands, in the second chart you can see the words which is typical for dialects and some
specific areas in the country.

Croatian Turkish Greek Persian Real English

meaning
avlija avli aulḗ yard
basamaci basamak a step stairs
bešika beşik crib
bostan bostan garden melon
jok yok no
kašika kaşık kasek spoon
komšija komşu neighbor
merak merak curiosity joy; delight
nalet lanet curse
pare para pāre money
pendžer pencere pendzereh window
As you may notice, those words also changed phonologically and morphologically. But you
may also notice the column named ‘Real meaning’ through which you can notice that some of
these words also changed semantically (i.e. they changed their meaning in our language).