greek

Greek is a Hellenic language in the Indo-European family, spoken mainly in Greece and Cyprus and by Greek communities worldwide. It covers Ancient Greek, documented from the 2nd millennium BCE, and Modern Greek, the form used today. The two are part of a continuous literary and cultural tradition, including Koine Greek, the common dialect of the Hellenistic world.

The Greek alphabet, developed from the Phoenician script around the 8th century BCE, has 24 letters and is used for most writing in Greek. It preserved classical texts and remains central in science and scholarship. Greek is highly inflected: Ancient Greek used several noun cases and a rich verb system; Modern Greek keeps a definite article and a simplified case system, but retains a complex tense and aspect system. Dialects include Attic, Ionic, Doric, and Koine; the modern standard is Standard Modern Greek, with regional varieties.

Greek has played a central role in Western philosophy, literature, and science. Ancient Greek authors such as Homer, Plato, and Aristotle shaped classical education, while Modern Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and is used by millions in the Greek diaspora. The language has contributed many loanwords to other languages and the Greek script is widely used in scholarly contexts.