What was Cleopatra VII's first language?

Cleopatra VII’s first language was Koine Greek.

Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Macedonian Greek ruling family that governed Egypt after Alexander the Great’s conquest. She was born in Alexandria, a strongly Hellenistic city where Greek was the language of the royal court and much public life.

Koine Greek was the common form of Greek used across the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Cleopatra could speak several other languages as an adult, including Egyptian, and ancient accounts credit her with being the first Ptolemaic ruler known to learn the native Egyptian language.

The common mistake is to assume that the queen’s first language must have been Egyptian because she ruled Egypt. In fact, Greek was her native court language, while Egyptian was an important additional language. She was also associated with Latin and several regional languages, reflecting diplomacy and the wide territories linked to the Ptolemaic kingdom.