The language of Greece. Mainly spoken in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus.
Greek has it origins in the 14th centrury BCE with a writing known as "linear B" found on clay tablets at Knossos on Crete. It was only as recently as 1952 that "linear B" was discovered to be Greek.
The history of Greek is one of evolution from the earliest Mycenaen Greek (up to the 8th centry BCE), through Classical Greek (up to the 4th century BCE), to koine (or "comon") Greek spoken for the next thousand years. Modern Greek is derived from koine. Throughout its history, elements of greek language have propagated through the languages of Europe. For example, the Greek alphabet was used as the basis of the Etruscan language script which in turn evolved into the roman script that is now used throughout modern Europe.
| Name | Where spoken | Language Family | How many (000s) |
| Greek | Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and surrounding area | Indo-European (Greek) | 10-10.5m |
Table source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, David Ctystal, Cambridge University Press
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