Greek

Greek
Language code (ISO 639-1)	el
Language code (ISO 639-2) 3-char	gre, ell
Native speakers (L1)	13500000
2nd language speakers (L2)
Wikipedia page to check	wikipedia:Greek language

Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, romanized: Elliniká, pronounced [eliniˈka]; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, romanized: Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records.

Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.