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Greek

Baltic, Armenian, Albanian, Hellenic and Ancestral Indo-European Languages

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 2
Speaker Count
13,500,000 2
2015 estimate.
Status
Living 2
Wikipedia article on Greek: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27.
Attested From (Year)
from 1500 BCE 3
Region
Native to Greece, Cyprus, Albania (Gjirokaster County and Vlore County), Italy (Calabria, Salento and Messina) and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, Black Sea coast, Asia Minor and Eastern Mediterranean 2
Classification
Language Kind
Safe 1
Official Status
Official Language 2
Connections

In Family

Source Wikipedia: Greek Language

Written In

Greek Script, Scripts

Modern Greek is written in the Greek alphabet.

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Original Language Of

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Found In

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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Source Wikipedia: Greek LanguageLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2
Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
It is native to the territories that have had populations of Greeks since antiquity: Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Modern Greek (Glottolog languoid mode1248)
GlottologEndangerment, AES status
Quote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Greek Language
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records.
  • Infobox, ISO 639-3
    ell
  • Article text
    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.
  • Lead section
    It is native to the territories that have had populations of Greeks since antiquity: Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
  • Infobox, Official language in
    Greece
  • In Family: Hellenic, Infobox, Language family
    Hellenic
View the Source
3. Omniglot: Greek language, alphabet and pronunciation
OmniglotLanguage at a glance
Quote, Language at a glance
First written : 1500 BC
View the Source
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