What Language Is Spoken in Greece? Greek Language Facts

Greece is an amazing, beautiful, and very interesting country with rich history in the Southern East part of Europe. It’s one of the best holiday destinations you could think of. So if you are wondering about travelling to Greece, I can only confirm and say, it’s a good idea!

In this blog post, I will tell you what language is spoken in Greece and will talk a little bit about this language.

Languages are such a fascinating topic. Differences, similarities, and origins. As a philologist (of Croatian language), I’m probably interested in this topic even more, especially in the European language family.

Let’s have a look at some basic information about the language spoken in Greece.

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Language spoken in Greece

First, a straight-forward answer. What is the language that is spoken in Greece?

It’s Greek, and it’s the official language of Greece. Sometimes it’s additionally called modern Greek to differentiate it from ancient Greek language.

Greek is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It’s also the official language of Cyprus, although there are differences between Cypriot Greek and the language spoken by native Greek speakers.

Greek language origin and group

Sometimes, because of geography, meaning Southern East part of Europe, which is close to Slavic countries, people think Greek is a Slavic language. It’s not.

In this part of Europe, not every language is Slavic. Although the majority is, indeed. The non-Slavic languages are Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian, and Greek which do not originate from the Slavic group of languages. And Turkish, but I guess it’s a bit different story.

Anyway, the Greek language is a separate branch of the Indo-European family of languages, called Hellenic.

Not many languages of European countries are ‘alone’ in their group of languages; usually it’s a bigger group, like Slavic, or Romance languages.

Modern Greek language is descendant of ancient Greek language.

Ancient Greek is one of the oldest languages in human history, with preserved writings dating back to even 9 centuries BC.

Ancient Greek has also been, similarly to the Latin language (the language of the Roman empire), one of the most significant languages that influenced many other languages. In modern European languages, you can find a lot of Greek-origin words. In many case,s they were borrowed from Greek to Latin and then entered to other languages via Latin. Nevertheless, examples of Greek-origin words are: geography, economy, and architect. It’s many currently used words, and very often we even don’t feel this origin. The same words are not only in English but also in other languages, for example, in Polish.

Ah, and by the way. The world ‘alphabet’ comes from Greek as well. Word is built based on the names of two first letters in the Greek alphabet

Greek alphabet

But coming back to standard modern Greek.

It uses the Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters.

Different letters together create an additional 13 sounds.

You have to know letters to be able to read the alphabet; I don’t think you can ‘guess’ it. It could be a little bit easier for people who know Cyrillic alphabets, but anyway, it’s not easy.  That’s why you will probably mostly focus on the English language and Latin alphabet.

Greek dialects

As with every language, Greek also well has different dialects.

One I’ve already mentioned. It’s Cypriot Greek, which apparently resembles the ancient language a little bit more than modern Greek language. For sure, there are differences. Last year, I was on the meeting with a group of ex-colleagues from all over Europe. There was also a lady from Athens, and a lady from Cyprus, and they were talking about differences they heard in their ways of speaking.

From the other (non-official) dialects, it’s Pontic Greek, spoken in Northern Greece, or Cretan Greek from the Island of Crete.

Sometimes, you may also hear the name ‘Demotic Greek’ or ‘Dimotiki’. This is actually the standard modern Greek, and Demotic means ‘the language of the people’. So it’s not really dialect.

From the history, you could hear about Koine Greek, so the ‘Bible Greek’.

Minority languages and foreign languages in Greece

Typically, in every country, you may find minority languages, so languages that are spoken by minority groups living in another country. The scale of this depends on the history, political and geographical changes, and economic migrations. In Greece, you can also find minority languages.

First of all, the biggest minority language is Albanian language, as Albanian immigrants make the biggest minority in Greece. Additionally, it’s Turkish speakers with Turkish language, Armenian, and Bulgarian, and Macedonian. For more information, you can check out this website.

When it comes to popular languages. Well, Greece is a touristic country, so obviously English is the main language, and it’s widely spoken. English speakers will not have any issues communicating in English, especially if you reach places visited by tourists. And in Greece, there are many places that are visited by tourists.

Similarly, don’t worry if you don’t read the Greek alphabet. You will find menus in restaurants, etc., in English as well.

Other foreign languages that are spoken in Greece are German, French, and Italian. When visiting islands, especially Cyclades, I had the impression they were visited a lot by French tourists. So it’s not surprising that you will be able to communicate in French in some places as another foreign language.

Language spoken in Greece: A few Greek words

A great way to start our holidays on the plane is to learn a few words in the language of the country we are travelling to. It’s not about great speaking and pronunciation, but just being able to greet a person in a shop and say thanks.

A few useful Greek words are below. They are written in the Latin alphabet in a phonetic way, just to make it as simple as possible:

Hello – Yassas, Yah

Good morning – Kalimera

Good afternoon/ Good evening – Kalispera

Good night – Kalinijta

Thank you – Efcharisto

Language spoken in Greece: Summary

If you are planning a trip to Greece, the most important information from this article is that in Greece, Greek language is spoken. And that you will have no trouble communicating in English, especially where more English-speaking tourists visit.

However, the topic of languages is important if you want to understand the culture of a particular country more. Language has an influence on culture and mentality (and, on the other hand, culture and mentality have an influence on the language). I hope this article has helped you understand the position of modern and ancient Greek languages a little bit more.

Are you interested in travelling to Greece information? I have a lot of useful blog posts for you.

Here, you will find a lot of useful tips regarding planning your Greek holidays.

Are you thinking about visiting one island or even doing island hopping? Then read the Greek Islands’ Description.

And check out 5 Great Hotels on Greek Islands so that you can find the best accommodation on Crete, Santorini, Ios, Paros and Kalymnos.

Planning to see the blue domes of Santorini?

Here, you can check how to get to Santorini and get around the island.

Here, you can see where to stay in Santorini.

And if you will already be in Greece and wander in charming towns and little streets, you can go for small shopping. Here, I’m showing Best souvenirs to bring home from Greece.