Greek

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A language of Greece

ISO 639-3
ell
Alternate Names
Ellinika, Graecae, Grec, Greco, Neo-Hellenic, Romaic
Population

10,700,000 in Greece (2002 census). Population total all countries: 13,068,650.

Location

Widespread. Also in Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Macedonia, Malawi, Mozambique, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). De facto national language.

Classification
Indo-European, Greek, Attic
Dialects

Dimotiki, Katharevousa, Saracatsan. Katharevousa is an archaic literary dialect, Dimotiki is the spoken literary and now official dialect. The Saracatsan are nomadic shepherds of northern Greece. The Greek of Italy and that of Corsica are probably distinct languages (1992 R. Zamponi). In Cyprus, the dialect is reportedly more similar to Classical Greek [grc] in some vocabulary and grammar than that spoken in Greece, and to have Latin [lat] and Turkish [tur] loanwords. Lexical similarity: 84%–93% with Greek [ell] in Cyprus.

Typology

SVO

Language Development
Fully developed. Bible: 1840–1994.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Greek
Writing
Braille script. Cyrillic script, used in Ukraine. Greek script, primary usage.
Other Comments

Greeks in the Russian Federation and Ukraine speak either Greek or Turkish, Ethnonym: Urums. The Karamanli were Orthodox Christian Turks who came from central Turkey.

Also spoken in:

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