Balkan Sprachbund

The Balkan Sprachbund is a linguistic phenomenon where several neighboring languages in the Balkans, despite belonging to different language families, share common features in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. This convergence occurs because of long-term contact and interaction among diverse peoples, leading to similarities that are not due to shared origin. For example, languages like Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Romanian have developed comparable grammatical structures and borrowings, making them more alike in certain aspects than to languages farther away. The Sprachbund illustrates how social and cultural contact can influence language development beyond genetic relationships.