Ladino was the traditional language of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki for over 500 years and the dominant language in the commercial and daily life of the city. Also called Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, Ladino is rooted in the Medieval Spanish language and enriched with words from Turkish, French, Italian, and Greek, and was spoken by the Jews who abandoned Spain and found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Today, Ladino is spoken by only a small number of Thessalonikan Jews, since after the Holocaust the survivors and their families transitioned to Greek so as to not stand out and risk persecution.