



Think of it as Latin and Italian.Īs mentioned before, Greek is the official language of Greece and it is spoken throughout Greece, Cyprus and many other regions in the world. Although ancient Greek is considered to be a dead language, in a sense that it isn’t spoken anymore, modern Greek is definitely not. We have gathered a summary of everything you need to know in the following infographic. The Greek language has passed through many periods and phases. So, how did we end up with Standard Modern Greek? Nevertheless, in both cases we are unable to tell how these versions of Greek might have sounded. Linear A was used by the Minoan civilization in Crete from as early as 1800 BC! There’s an even older writing system, which was called Linear A, however this version remains undeciphered till this day. Now you might be wondering: Why is this writing system called Linear B? Was there a Linear A script?Īnd the answer is yes. It is known as Mycenaean Greek, which used Linear B as a writing system and many samples have been found carved in stone or marble. This version of Greek is syllabic and completely different from modern Greek. The earliest evidence of the Greek language dates back to 1450 BC, during the flourish of the Mycenaean civilization. Let’s take a closer look at Greek, its dialects and other languages spoken in Greece. Today, it is spoken by more than 13 million people in Greece, Cyprus, Albania and some regions of the USA, Canada and Europe. The official language of Greece is modern Greek and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.Modern Greek language is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.
