For the Greek language used during particular eras, see Proto-Greek language, Mycenaean Greek, Ancient Greek, Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, and Modern Greek.
Greek
Ελληνικά Elliniká
Pronunciation
[eliniˈka]
Native to
Greece
Cyprus
Albania (Gjirokastër County and Vlorë County)
Italy (Calabria, Salento and Messina)
and other regions of the Balkans, Black Sea coast, Asia Minor and Eastern Mediterranean
Areas where Modern Greek is spoken (in dark blue those areas where it is the official language)[note 1]
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Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, romanized: Elliniká, pronounced[eliniˈka]; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, romanized: Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records.[10] Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years;[11][12] previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary.[13] The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.
The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek.[14][15] Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics.
During antiquity, Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world.[16] It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek.[17] In its modern form, Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora.
Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary.
Idealised portrayal of the author Homer
^Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Ancient Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Cappadocian Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Mycenaean Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Pontic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Tsakonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) (Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
^2006 Census Table: Language Spoken at Home by Sex – Time Series Statistics (1996, 2001, 2006 Census Years)
^Αυστραλία: Τηλεδιάσκεψη «Μιλάμε Ελληνικά τον Μάρτιο»
^Tsitselikis 2013, pp. 287–288.
^Cite error: The named reference Toktaş2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Bayır2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference HRWLanguageRights was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Language Use in the United States: 2011" (PDF). United States Census. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^"gree1276". Council of Europe. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
^"Greek language". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
^Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E. L.; Walrath, Dana; McBride, Bunny (2013). "Chapter 15: Language and Communication". Anthropology: The Human Challenge. Cengage Learning. p. 394. ISBN 978-1-285-67758-3. Most of the alphabets used today descended from the Phoenician one. The Greeks adopted it about 2,800 years ago, modifying the characters to suit sounds in their own language.
^Comrie, Bernard (1987). The World's Major Languages. Routledge (published 2018). ISBN 978-1-317-29049-0. ... the Greek alphabet has served the Greek language well for some 2,800 years since its introduction into Greece in the tenth or ninth century BC.
^Adrados, Francisco Rodríguez (2005). A history of the Greek language : from its origins to the present. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12835-4. OCLC 59712402.
^Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland The text of the New Testament: an introduction to the critical 1995 p. 52.
^Archibald Macbride Hunter Introducing the New Testament 1972 p. 9.
^Malkin, Irad (2011). A small Greek world : networks in the Ancient Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734818.001.0001. ISBN 9780199918553.
^Manuel, Germaine Catherine (1989). A study of the preservation of the classical tradition in the education, language, and literature of the Byzantine Empire. HVD ALEPH.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, romanized: Elliniká, pronounced [eliniˈka]; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, romanized: Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the...
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greeklanguage used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly...
Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken...
official language of Greece is Greek, spoken by 99% of the population. In addition, a number of non-official, minority languages and some Greek dialects...
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greeklanguage between the end of classical antiquity in the...
referred to by speakers simply as Greek (Ελληνικά, Elliniká), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greeklanguage spoken in the modern era, including...
Greeklanguage question (Greek: το γλωσσικό ζήτημα, to glossikó zítima) was a dispute about whether the vernacular of the Greek people (Demotic Greek)...
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greeklanguage since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet...
symbols. Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greeklanguage, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries...
Greek Sign Language (ENG) (Greek: Ελληνική νοηματική γλώσσα) is a sign language used by the Greek deaf community. Greek Sign has been legally recognized...
branch of the Indo-European language family whose principal member is Greek. In most classifications, Hellenic consists of Greek alone, but some linguists...
languages of the Republic of Cyprus are Greek and Turkish.: art. 3, § 1 The everyday spoken language (vernacular) of Greek Cypriots is Cypriot Greek...
Cappadocian Greek (Cappadocian Greek: Καππαδοκικά, Καππαδοκική Διάλεκτος), also known as Cappadocian is a dialect of modern Greek, originally spoken in...
Greeklanguage, a branch of the Indo-European language family Proto-Greeklanguage, the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek Mycenaean...
other parts of Northern Greece. The Tsakonian language, a distinct Greeklanguage deriving from Doric Greek instead of Koine Greek, is still spoken in villages...
and Black Sea, but the Greek people themselves have always been centered on the Aegean and Ionian seas, where the Greeklanguage has been spoken since...
The English language uses many Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages: Greek and Latin roots...
century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contemporary vernacular, Demotic Greek. Originally, it was widely used...
Indo-European language family. In ancient times, Greek had already come to exist in several dialects, one of which was Attic. The earliest attestations of Greek, dating...
Demotic Greek or Dimotiki (Greek: Δημοτική Γλώσσα, Dimotikí Glóssa, [ðimotiˈci], lit. 'language of the people') is the standard spoken language of Greece in...
Doric or Dorian (Ancient Greek: Δωρισμός, romanized: Dōrismós), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided...
Constantinopolitan Karaites (in whose case the language is called Karaitika or Karaeo-Greek). The Romaniotes are a group of Greek Jews whose presence in the Levant...
linguistics, Aeolic Greek (/iːˈɒlɪk/), also known as Aeolian (/iːˈoʊliən/), Lesbian or Lesbic dialect, is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly...
for the GreekLanguage (Greek: Κέντρον Ελληνικής Γλώσσας) is a cultural and educational organisation which aims to promote the Greeklanguage and culture...
Cappadocian Greeks, also known as Greek Cappadocians (Greek: Έλληνες-Καππαδόκες, Ελληνοκαππαδόκες, Καππαδόκες; Turkish: Kapadokyalı Rumlar) or simply...
typologically distinct languages. Cypriot Greek is not an evolution of ancient Arcadocypriot Greek, but derives from Byzantine Medieval Greek. It has traditionally...
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