Greek language
The Greek language (Modern Greek ελληνική γλώσσα ellinikí glóssa [ 
], Ancient Greek ἑλληνικὴ γλῶσσα hellēnikḕ glō̂ssa resp. Attic ἑλληνικὴ γλῶττα hellēnikḕ glō̂tta) is an Indo-European language with a written tradition spanning 3400 years. Ancient Greek, used in antiquity and now taught in schools, and Modern Greek, spoken in Greece today, are different stages of the Greek language.
Western culture is significantly influenced by the language and culture of ancient Greece. European literature, philosophy and science began in the Greek language. Important works of world literature such as the Homeric epics, the great dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle or the New Testament are written in Greek. In numerous loan words and foreign words (Greekisms) Greek is alive in many modern languages.
Language relation
The Greek language belongs to the Indo-European languages and represents a separate branch of this language family. The ancient Macedonian language is closely related to Greek. Linguists refer to this language group as the Hellenic languages. Most linguists suggest that both languages are equivalent splits of the original Hellenic language, while some others claim that Macedonian is a dialect of Greek.
The closest relatives are Armenian and Albanian. This Balkan Indo-European hypothesis is supported by quantitative methods.
Scripture
→ Main articles: Greek alphabet, linear script B and linear script A
Before the invention and introduction of the Greek script still in use today, around the 9th century BC, Mycenaean Greek was recorded in the so-called Linear B script, which, however, fell into disuse with the decline of the Mycenaean culture. Its predecessor, the Linear A script, was probably not used for the Greek language.
Although the pronunciation of Greek has changed many times over the millennia, the orthography has remained largely constant thanks to many efforts to keep the language pure. The accents (acute, grave and circumflex) and symbols for breath sounds (spiritus asper and spiritus lenis) introduced into the Greek written language in Hellenistic times were still used until recently. By Greek Presidential Decree No. 297 of 29 April 1982, the breath signs were abolished and the accents were replaced by a single sign (tonos) indicating the stressed syllable. The tonos looks like an accent, but is not identical to it (in Unicode, tonos and accent are represented by different codes). Literary texts in particular, however, are still often printed with puffs and accents to this day - whether it is the modern Greek vernacular language Dimotikí or the state and educational language Katharévousa.
Questions and Answers
Q: What is the Greek language?
A: The Greek language is an Indo-European language. It is the official language of Greece (Hellas) and Cyprus.
Q: Where was it first spoken?
A: 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 was also widely used in Western Asia and Northern Africa at one time.
Q: How do Greeks write their language?
A: Greeks write their language using the Greek alphabet.
Q: How long has Greek been a written language for?
A: Greek has an unbroken history of being a written language for over 3,000 years, which is longer than any other Indo-European language spoken today.
Q: What are the three parts of its history?
A: The history of Greek can be divided into three parts - ancient Greek, medieval Greek, and modern Greek. The years 330-1453 are called medieval Greek because that's the time of the Byzantine Empire.
Q: How many people speak it as of 2021?
A: Over 13 million people in the world speak Greek as of 2021. These speakers 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 due to emigration from Greece to other countries like the United States and Australia with large populations from its diaspora.
