The idea for this article came to my mind while writing my previous one, that in some way was also connected with linguistics. It seems like this previous article made me find again my interest in doing research about linguistics. So let’s talk about a fascinating, yet not necessarily well known topic: the Balkan Sprachbund, or Balkan language area. You might wonder what I’m talking about, so to put it simply it is the ensemble of linguistic characteristics that can be found amid the different languages of the Balkans. Different language families are present in the Balkan region, notably Slavic, Romance, Hellenic or Albanian, for example. While many linguists agree with the existence of such a thing as a “Balkan linguistic area”, it is important to keep in mind the fact that there are also some that don’t agree with it, whether it’s because of the origins of these similarities, or them being relevant enough to be a specific language region.
In this article I will try to provide some examples of words, or sentences for each feature that I will present. However, they will only be in Macedonian and Bulgarian, as those are the only Balkan languages in which I have some knowledge in and thus feel comfortable using here. If you’re curious about examples in other languages, I encourage you to do your own research about the topic by, for example, reading the articles that I used as sources. Furthermore, keep in mind that I cannot present all the characteristics as it probably would take some time to introduce them all, and also this is only a vulgarisation article about a complex topic. You might also see the mention of BCMS, which stands for Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian. I will mainly use it here to make my life easier.
Now you might wonder, what could be the possible reasons behind these shared attributes? First of all, it’s important to remind ourselves that there historically always were lots of contacts between different populations and cultures in this region, especially due to the Ottoman empire ruling the region that lasted for centuries. Due to the turbulent history of the region, many people moved around, which also contributed to the contacts between populations. Obviously, these contacts led to many cultural similarities. So it would make sense that languages that don’t seem to have any connection would share some features. Some other theories behind the existence of these similarities are that some could be inherited from paleo-balkan languages, such as Thracian or Illyrian, however due to the lack of knowledge about these languages, we cannot be sure about this theory. However, it’s likely that the existence of the different characteristics is due to multiple sources, that is different languages from different language families.
Reduction of the case system
Slavic languages are known for having complex case systems, however Macedonian and Bulgarian are exceptions to this rule. Indeed, their case system has almost fully disappeared, apart from some leftovers. Here, you can, for example, see some words put in vocative:
MK пријателе, мајко (prijatele, majko)
BG приятелю, майко (priyatеlyu, mayko)
Macedonian and Bulgarian also have traces of accusative and dative pronouns, but you will get to see some examples of the short forms later in the part about double clitics.
While for Macedonian and Bulgarian the reduction of the case system is complete, it is not the case for other Balkan languages, that is Romanian, Albanian and Modern Greek. In their instance, while there’s a significant reduction of the case system, they are still very much in use.
“Want future” + present tense
All Balkan languages have an analytic formation of the future, that is using an auxiliary verb/ particle that is followed by a verb conjugated in the present tense. Several languages like Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian or Modern Greek have some kind of invariable form. Although for Romanian or BCMS languages the auxiliary verb is conjugated to.
In the case of Slavic languages, this auxiliary verb/particle comes from an Old Church Slavonic verb for “to want”, and that morphed over time.
ex: MK Ќе одам … (Kje odam)
BG Ще отида … (Shtе otida)
Loss of infinitive
Much like the case system, infinitive forms have also disappeared in Macedonian and Bulgarian languages; as it is also the case for Modern Greek. While in Albanian, or BCMS the infinitive forms exist, other structures can also be used.
Here are examples showing the use of the so-called da-construction is used in Macedonian, Bulgarian:
MK Сакам да читам. (Sakam da chitam.)
BG Искам да чета. (Iskam da chеta.)
Postponed definite articles
The existence of postponed articles is a characteristic shared by most Balkan languages, except for Modern Greek and BCMS. It is also interesting to note that Macedonian and Bulgarian are the only Slavic languages that use definite articles.
ex: MK мажот, жената, детето, родителите (mažot, ženata, deteto, roditelite)
BG мъжът, жената, детето, родителите (măžăt, žеnata, dеtеto, roditеlitе)
Clitics (doubles object)
Clitics, especially double clitics are also a prominent feature of Balkan languages.
While clitics are obligatory in Macedonian and Albanian particularly with indirect objects, they’re more optional in Bulgarian, Romanian and Modern Greek.
Here you can see examples of sentences that use these clitics, that also serve as the short forms of accusative and dative pronouns. The first example shows the use of both dative and accusative, whilst the second example only shows accusative.
ex: MK Ѝ jа давам книгата на Марија. (I ja davam knigata na Marija.)
BG Давам книгата на Мария. (davam knigata na Mariya.)
MK Стојан го јаде сендвичот. (Stojan go jade sendvichot.)
BG Стоян яде сандвича. (Stoyan yadе sandvicha.)
As we can see though Balkan languages are very diverse they can still have common properties, that in some ways connect them. Though this fact may seem unexpected, like we have already seen it makes sense when we look at the history of the region. I already mentioned that I couldn’t mention all characteristics but here are some other more that you could look at if you’re interested in the topic: the renarrative mood, the deictic system, or even phonetic features and loanwords.
Chloe Gaschy
Sources:
Tomić, O. M. (2004a). The Balkan Sprachbund morpho-syntactic properties. In Linguistik aktuell (p. 1‑55)
Heine, B., & Kuteva, T. (2005). The Balkans. In Language Contact and Grammatical Change (p. 187-199)
Friedman, V. A. (2007). Balkanizing the Balkan Sprachbund A Closer Look at Grammatical Permeability and Feature Distribution. In Oxford University Press eBooks (p. 201‑219)
Friedman, V. A. (2000). After 170 years of Balkan Linguistics: Whither the Millennium? In Mediterranean Language Review, Vol. 12, 2000. (p.1-15)
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