Indo-European language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Greek language, also referred to as the Grecian language, is an Indo-European language. It is the official language of Greece (Hellas) and Cyprus. It was first spoken in Greece and was also once spoken along the coast of Asia Minor (now a part of Turkey) and in southern Italy. It also used to be widely used in Western Asia and Northern Africa. In Greek, the language is called Ελληνικά (elliniká).
Greek | |
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elliniká | |
Eλληνικά | |
Pronunciation | [eliniˈka] |
Region | Greece, southern Mediterranean |
Native speakers | 13 million (2012)[1] |
Indo-European
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Dialects |
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Official status | |
Official language in | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | el |
ISO 639-2 | gre (B) ell (T) |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:ell – Modern Greekgrc – Ancient Greekcpg – Cappadocian Greekgmy – Mycenaean Greekpnt – Pontictsd – Tsakonianyej – Yevanic |
Glottolog | gree1276 |
Linguasphere |
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Greeks write their language using the Greek alphabet. The Latin alphabet, which used to write English and many other languages, came indirectly from the Greek alphabet by the Etruscan alphabet. Many other alphabets around the world also came from the Greek alphabet.
Greek has an unbroken history of being a written language for over 3,000 years. Thats is longer than any other Indo-European language spoken today. Its history is often divided into three parts, Ancient Greek, Medieval Greek, and Modern Greek. Medieval Greek is also called Byzzantine Greek because it was spoken in the Byzantine Empire.
Over 13 million people in the world speak Greek as of 2021, mostly live in Greece (almost 11 million) and Cyprus (over 1 million). There are also people in other countries around the world who speak the language, largely because people left Greece and Cyprus and emigrated to other countries. The United States and Australia have a large Greek diaspora.
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