It is used in Government, schools and the media and spoken by about 10 million in Greece, about 600.000 of the inhabitants of Cyprus and another 3 to 4 million Greeks of the Diaspora, mainly in the U.S, Australia, Canada, South America and many European countries. Before the population exchange in 1923, there were Greek-speaking communities in Turkey (Pontus and Cappadocia). Greek language - Greek language - Modern Greek: Modern Greek derives from the Koine via the local varieties that presumably arose during the Byzantine period and is the mother tongue of the inhabitants of Greece and of the Greek population of the island of Cyprus. In Modern Greek, however, the standard transliteration for χ is kh. Greek is the official language of Greece. Some differences in transliteration result from changes in pronunciation of the Greek language; others reflect convention, as for example the χ (chi or khi), which was transliterated by the Romans as ch (because they lacked the letter k in their usual alphabet).