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How old is the Greek language?

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Thematic map of Eurasia showing the approximate geographic distribution of Indo-European language families, each represented by a different color. Areas include Celtic in western Europe, Germanic in northern and central Europe, Romance in southwestern Europe, Slavic in eastern Europe and Russia, and Indo-Iranian languages in South Asia. Non-Indo-European language regions and areas of common bilingualism are also indicated. — Greek language Approximate locations of Indo-European languages in contemporary Eurasia.

The Greek language has a history spanning several millennia. It has been spoken in Greece since at least 1600 BCE, and it is highly probable that the language existed as far back as the end of the 3rd millennium BCE.1

The earliest discovered form of the language is known as Mycenaean, which was primarily used for administrative records and inventories in royal palaces. This ancient stage of the language was written in a syllabic script called Linear B, with some tablets dating back to approximately 1400 BCE, though this date is disputed, and others definitively dating to 1200 BCE.21

The oldest texts of significant length are the Homeric epics—the Iliad and the Odyssey—which likely date from the 8th century BCE. Throughout its long history, despite the development of various dialects, Greek has remained a single, continuous language.1