Languages of the Balkans
Overview of Balkan languages
This is a list of languages spoken in regions ruled by Balkan countries. With the exception of several Turkic languages, all of them belong to the Indo-European family. Despite belonging to four different families of Indo-European; Slavic, Romance, Greek, and Albanian, a subset of these languages is notable for forming a well-studied sprachbund, a group of languages that have developed some striking structural similarities over time.
Indo-European languages
Germanic
- Yiddish (Slovenia, Romania)
- Austrian German (Slovenia)
Albanian
- Arvanitika
- Northwestern Arvanitika
- Southcentral Arvanitika
- Thracean Arvanitika
- Gheg
- Standard Albanian
- Arbëresh
- Tosk
- Istrian
Hellenic languages
- Greek
- Cappadocian Greek
- Pontic Greek
- Standard Greek
- Tsakonian
Indo-Aryan languages
- Romani
Slavic languages
Eastern South Slavic
- Bulgarian
- Macedonian
Transitional dialects
- Transitional Bulgarian dialects
- Transitional Serbo-Croatian dialects (Našinski/Torlakian)
East Slavic
Western South Slavic
- Slovene
- Serbo-Croatian with standardized varieties based on the Shtokavian dialect:
Regiolects
Romance languages
- Aromanian
- Istriot (in western Istria)
- Istro-Romanian (In eastern Istria)
- Italian (on the Adriatic coast)
- Ladino (in Greece, Turkey, Bosnia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania)
- Megleno-Romanian (Meglenenitic)
- Romanian
Turkic languages
Extinct languages
These are the extinct languages that were once spoken in the Balkans:
- Ancient Macedonian
- Dacian
- Dalmatian
- Eteocretan
- Eteocypriot
- Illyrian
- Lemnian
- Liburnian
- Ottoman Turkish
- Paeonian
- Pelasgian
- Phrygian
- Thracian
See also
- v
- t
- e
Countries on the Balkan Peninsula
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Balkan_topo_en.jpg/100px-Balkan_topo_en.jpg)
- Italy (Monfalcone and Trieste)
- Romania (Northern Dobruja)
- Turkey (East Thrace)
- Balkan languages (Sprachbund)
- Balkanization
- History of the Balkans
- Southeast Europe