Interesting facts about the Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It has the
longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of
written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history. The
alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems.
The Greek language holds an important
place in the history of the Western world and Christianity;
the canon of ancient Greek literature includes works of monumental
importance and influence for the Western canon such as the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey.
Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science,
especially astronomy, mathematics and logic, and Western philosophy, such as the Platonic dialogues and the works of Aristotle, are
composed in; the New Testament of the Holy Bible was written in Koiné Greek.
Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world,
the study of the Greek texts and society of antiquity constitutes the
discipline of Classics.
During antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and beyond.
It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire and develop into Medieval Greek.
In its modern form,
the Greek language is the official language in two countries, Greece and
Cyprus, a recognised minority language in seven other countries, and is one of
the 24 official languages of the
European Union. The
language is spoken by at least 13 million people today in Greece, Cyprus,
Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora.
Links:
Malta Classics Association