Languages

Greek

Hellenic Languages

Citation Formats

General Reference

Language Atlas. "Greek." Accessed September 1, 2026. https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/greek.

APA Style

Language Atlas. (n.d.). Greek. Retrieved September 1, 2026, from https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/greek

BibTeX

@misc{languageatlas-greek,
  author = {Language Atlas},
  title = {Greek},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/greek},
  note = {Accessed September 1, 2026}
}

Greek is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records, and is native to Greece, Cyprus and other regions of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean.

Facts

ISO 639-3 Code

ell 1

Speaker Count

13,500,000 1

2015 estimate.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Greek Language

Wikimedia FoundationLead section

Quote, Lead section

Greek is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to the territories that have had populations of Greeks since antiquity: Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary.

View the Source

1. Wikipedia: Greek Language

Wikimedia FoundationInfobox, ISO 639-3

Quote, Infobox, ISO 639-3