A Sprachbund is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity.... or linguistic area is the ensemble of areal features—similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology—among languages of the BalkansBalkans
The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe a region of southeastern Europe.... , which belong to various branches of Indo-EuropeanFacts About Indo-European languages
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners o...
Syncretism of genitive and dative
In the Balkan languages, the genitiveGenitive case
In grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun.... and dativeDative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given.... cases (or corresponding prepositional constructions) undergo syncretismSyncretism (linguistics)
In linguistics, syncretism is the agreement in form of distinct morphological forms of a word.... .
Example:
Language
Dative
Genitive
English
I gave the book to Maria.
It is Maria's book.
Albanian
Ja dhashë librin Marisë.
Është libri i Marisë.
Aromanian
U-ded vivliapi Maria.
Easte vivlia aliMarie.
Bulgarian
????? ??????? ?? ????? [dadoh knigata na marija]
??????? ? ?? ????? [knigata e na Marija]
Romanian
I-am dat cartea Mariei. colloq. for fem. (oblig. for masc.): I-am dat cartea lui Marian.
Este cartea Mariei. colloq. for fem. (oblig. for masc.): Este cartea lui Marian.
Macedonian
? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ??????. [ì ja dadov knigata na Marija]
??????? ? ?? ??????. [knigata e na Marija]
Greek
?d?sa t? ß?ß??? st?? ?a??a. [édosa to biblío stin maría] or ?d?sa t? ß?ß??? t?? ?a??a?. [édosa to biblío tis marías]
???a? t? ß?ß??? t?? ?a??a?. [eínai to biblío tis marías]
??? t? ?d?sa [tis to édosa] 'I gave it to her.'
???a? t? ß?ß??? t??. [eínai to biblío tis] 'It is her book.'
Serbian
Ja sam dao knjigi Mariji*
To je Marijina* knjiga.
(* Marija in the Nominative case)
Syncretism of locative and directional expressions
language
"in Greece"
"into Greece"
Albanian
në Greqi
në Greqi
Aromania
tu Gãrtsia
tu Gãrtsia
Bulgarian
? ?????? (V Gartsiya)
? ?????? (V Gartsiya)
Greek
st?? ????da (stin Helláda)
st?? ????da (stin Helláda)
Macedonian
?? ?????? (vo Grcija)
?? ?????? (vo Grcija)
Romanian
în Grecia
în Grecia
Serbian
u Grckoj*
u Grckoj*
(* Grcka in the Nominative case)
Verb tenses
Future tense
The future tense is formed in an analyticAnalytic language
An analytic language is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and are considered to be full... way using an auxiliary verb or particle with the meaning "will, want", referred to as de-volitive, similar to the way the future is formed in English and originating with Greek innovation around the 1st century AD. This feature is present to varying degrees in each language. Decategoralization is less advanced in Romanian voi and in Serbian cu, ceš, ce, where the future marker is still an inflected auxiliary. In Modern Greek, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian, decategoralization and erosion have given rise to an uninflected tense form, where the frozen 3rd person singular of the verb has turned into an invariable particle followed by the main verb inflected for person.
Language
Variant
Formation
Example: "I'll see"
Albanian
Tosk
"do" (invariant) + subjunctive
Do të shikoj
Gheg
"kam" (conjugated) + me + verbal noun
Kam me shikue
Aromanian
"va" (invariant) + subjunctive
Va s-ved
Greek
"?a" (invariant) + subjunctive
Ta d? / ß??p? (tha do / blépo); "I'll see / be seeing"
Bulgarian
"??" (invariant) + present tense
?? ???? (shte vidya)
Macedonian
"??" (invariant) + present tense
?? ????? (kje vidam)
Serbian
(literary standard)
"?????/hteti" (conjugated) + infinitive
?? ?? ?????? (??????) (ja cu videti [videcu])
(colloquial)
"?????/hteti" (conjugated) + subjunctive
?? ?? ?? ????? (ja cu da vidim)
Romanian
(literary standard)
"a voi" (conjugated) + infinitive
Voi vedea/vedeare
(colloquial)
"o" (invariant) + subjunctive
O sa vad
(colloquial alternate)
"a avea" (conjugated) + subjunctive
Am sa vad
(archaic)
"va" (invariant) + subjunctive
Va sa vad
Romani
(Erli)
"ka" (invariant) + subjunctive
Ka dikhav
Analytic perfect tense
The analytic perfect tense is formed in the Balkan languages with the verb "to have". The origin of this language feature could be Latin. However, this does not apply to Bulgarian and Serbian, where the analytic perfect is formed with the verb "to be" and the past active participle: ?????? - "who has promised" (past active participle); ??? (Bul.); ??? (Ser.) - "I am"; ?????? ???; ?????? ??? (Ser.) - "I have promised" (lit. "I am one who has promised"), perfect tense. Constructions using the verb to have are characteristic of Macedonian language (???? ??????./Imam veteno. = I have promised.).
Morphology
Postposed article
With the exception of Greek and Romani, all languages in the union have their definite articleDefinite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on video and CD.... attached to the end of the noun, instead of before it. None of the related languages (like other Romance languages or Slavic languages) shares this feature and it is thought to be either an innovation or Albanian borrowing spread in the Balkans.
However, each language created its own internal articles, so the Romanian articles are related to the articles (and demonstrativeDemonstrative
Demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from oth... pronounPronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase.... s) in Italian, French, etc., while the Bulgarian articles are related to demonstrative pronouns in other Slavic languages.
Language
Feminine
Masculine
without article
with article
without article
with article
Albanian
shtëpi
shtëpia
qiell
qielli
Aromanian
muljare
muljarea
bãrbat
bãrbatlu
Bulgarian
????
??????
???
?????
Macedonian
????
??????
???
?????
Romanian
muiere
muierea
barbat
barbatul
Serbian Torlak
????
??????
???
?????
Number formation
The Slavic way of composing the numbers between 10 and 20, e.g. "one + on + ten" for eleven, called superessive, is widespread. Modern Greek does not follow this.
Language
The word "Eleven"
compounds
Albanian
"njëmbëdhjetë"
një + mbë + dhjetë
Aromanian
"unãsprã"
unã + sprã
Bulgarian
"??????????"
???? + (?)? + ?????
Macedonian
"?????????"
???(?)? + (?)? + (?)????
Romanian
"unsprezece" or, more commonly, "unspe"
un + spre + zece < *unu + supre + dece; unu + spre; the latter is more commonly used, even in formal speech.
Serbian
"jedanaest/?????????"
jedan+ (n)a+ (d)es(e)t/????? + (?)? + (?)??(?)?
Clitic pronouns
Direct and indirect objects are cross-referenced, or doubledFacts About Clitic doubling
Clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication, in linguistics, is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb ... , in the verb phrase by a cliticClitic
In linguistics, a clitic is a word that syntactically functions as a free morpheme, but phonetically appears as a bound morp... (weak) pronoun, agreeing with the object in gender, number, and case or case function. This can be found in Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian. In Albanian and Macedonian, this feature shows fully grammaticalized structures and is obligatory with indirect objects and to some extent with definite direct objects; in Bulgarian, however, it is optional and therefore based on discourse. In Greek, the construction contrasts with the clitic-less construction and marks the cross-referenced object as a topic. Southwest Macedonia appears to be the location of innovation.
For example, "I see George" in Balkan languages:
Language
Example
Albanian
"E shikoj Gjergjin"
Aromanian
"U- ved Yioryi"
Bulgarian
"?????? ?? ??????." (colloquial form; see note)
Macedonian
"?o ?????? ?????."
Greek
"??? ß??p? t?? G?????"
Romanian
"Îl vad pe George."
Note: The neutral case in normal word order is without a clitic: "?????? ??????." However, the form with an additional clitic pronoun is also possible in colloquial speech: "?????? ?? ??????." And the clitic is obligatory in the case of a topicalized object (with OVS-word order), which serves also as the common colloquial equivalent of a passive construction. "?????? ?? ??????."
Adjectives
The replacement of synthetic adjectival comparative forms with analytic ones by means of preposed markers is common. These markers are:
Bulgarian: ??-
Albanian: më
Romanian: mai
Modern Greek: pió; though Greek has retained a few of the earlier synthetic forms.
Aromanian: (ca)ma
Suffixes
Also, some common suffixes can be found in the linguistic area, such as the diminutive suffix of Slavic origin "-ica" that can be found in Albanian, Greek and Romanian.
Vocabulary
Loan words
Several hundred words are common to the Balkan union languages; the origin of most of them is either GreekGreek language
Greek has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family.... or TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a Turkic language spoken natively by the Turkish people in Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Republic of Macedon... , as the Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the... and later the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire , is also sometimes known in the West as the Turkish Empire.... directly controlled the territory throughout most of its history, strongly ingluencing its culture and economics.
Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Serbian and Macedonian also share a large number of words of various origins:
Source
Source word
Meaning
Albanian
Aromanian
Bulgarian
Greek
Romanian
Macedonian
Serbian
Turkish
Latin
mensa
table
menca (tavolinë)
masã
???? (masa)
-
masa
???? (masa)
-
masa
Thracian
rompea
spear
rrufë
-
roféja
??µfa?a (rhomphaía)
-
-
-
-
Byzantine Greek
??ß?d???
meadow
livadh
livadã
?????? (livada)
??ß?d?
livada
?????? (livada)
livada ?????? (livada)
-
Byzantine Greek
d?d?s?a???
teacher
-
dascal
?????? (daskal) (colloquial)
d?s?a???
dascal
?????? (daskal) (colloquial)
-
-
Byzantine Greek
???t???
box
kuti
cutii
?????
???t?
cutie
?????? (kutija)
kutija ?????? (kutija)
kutu
Turkish
boya
paint, color
bojë (but also ngjyrë)
boi
??? (boya)
µp???? (boyá)
boia
boja (boja)
boja ???? (boja)
boya
Calques
Apart from the direct loans, there are also many calques that were passed from one Balkan languages to another, most of them between Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Aromanian and Romanian.
For example, the word "ripen" (as in fruit) is constructed in Albanian, Romanian and (rarely) in Greek (piqem, a (se) coace, ????µa?) by a derivation from the word "to bake" (pjek, a coace, ????).
Another example is the wish "(Ø/to/for) many years":
Language
Expression
Transliteration
Greek
(medieval)
e?? ?t? p????
is eti polla
(modern)
?????a p????
khronia polla
Latin
ad multos annos
Aromanian
ti multsã-anj
Romanian
la multi ani
Albanian
për shumë vjet
Bulgarian
?? ????? ??????
za mnogo godini
Macedonian
?? ????? ??????
za mnogu godini
Idiomatic expressions for "whether one or not" are formed as "-not-".
Language
expression
meaning
Bulgarian
?? - ?? ??
"whether one wants or not"
Greek
???e? de ???e?
"whether one wants or not"
Romanian
vrea nu vrea
"whether one wants or not"
Turkish
ister istemez
"whether one wants or not"
Serbian
Hteo- ne hteo/???? - ?? ????
"whether one wants or not"
Albanian
deshti - nuk deshti
"whether one wants or not"
Macedonian
????? - ?? ????? / ?????
"whether one wants or not"
Aromanian
i vrei - i nu vrei
"whether one wants or not"
Phonetics
The main phonological features consist of:
the presence of an unrounded central vowel, either a mid-central schwaSchwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean:... or a high central vowel phoneme
ë in Albanian; ? in Bulgarian; a in Romanian; ` in Macedonian; ã in Aromanian
In Romanian and Albanian, the schwa is obtained via centralizing unstressed
Example: Latin camisia "shirt" > Romanian camasa , Albanian këmishë )
The schwa phoneme occurs in most dialects of the Macedonian languageMacedonian language
The Macedonian language is a language in the Eastern group of South Slavic languages and is the official language of the Re... , even in some cases in the western-central dialects, on which the standard is based (??`???, ?`????, ?`???? etc.)
some kind of vowel harmony in stressed syllables with differing patterns depending on the language.
Romanian: a mid-back vowel ends in a low glide before a nonhigh vowel in the following syllable
Albanian and Bulgarian: back vowels are fronted before i in the following syllable.
This feature also occurs in Greek, but it is lacking in some of the other Balkan languages; the central vowel is found in Romanian, Bulgarian, some dialects of Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian but not in Greek or Standard Macedonian.
Less widespread features are confined largely to either Romanian or Albanian, or both:
frequent loss of l before i in Albanian, Romanian, and some Romani dialects
In linguistics, Alternation is when a set of morphosyntactic properties is phonologically expressed in two or more different... between n and r in Albanian and Romanian
change from l to r in Romanian, Greek, Albanian, and very rarely in Bulgarian
the raising of o to u in unstressed syllables in Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian and Northern Greek dialects.
change from ea to e before i in Bulgarian and Romanian.
