Which language family does Greek belong to?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

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 belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of the oldest attested languages within this family, with written records dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE.123

While it shares a common ancestry with other Indo-European languages—all of which are believed to have descended from a hypothetical parent language known as Proto-Indo-European—Greek constitutes its own distinct branch within the family.13