Greek language
| Greek | |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά Elliniká | |
| Pronunciation | [eliniˈka] |
| Native to |
|
| Ethnicity | Greeks |
Native speakers | 13.5 million (2012)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Early form | |
| Dialects | |
| Greek alphabet | |
| 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 | |
 Areas where Modern Greek is spoken (Dark blue represents areas where it is the official language.)[note 1] | |
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.
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.
Related pages
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- ↑ Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Ancient Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Cappadocian Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Mycenaean Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Pontic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Tsakonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
(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
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Bayır2013was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page). - ↑ Cite error: The named reference
HRWLanguageRightswas used but no text was provided for refs named (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.
Other websites
[change | change source]
- Greek Dictionary Archived 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, from Webster's Dictionary Archived 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine.
- Ancient Greek Dictionaries Archived 2009-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, descriptions of both online dictionaries (with appropriate links) and Greek.
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