Languages of the Balkans


This is a list of languages spoken in regions ruled by Balkan countries. With the exception of several Turkic languages and Hungarian, 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
  • Austrian German

    Albanian

  • Arvanitika
  • *Northwestern Arvanitika
  • *Southcentral Arvanitika
  • *Thracean Arvanitika
  • Gheg
  • Standard Albanian
  • Arbëresh
  • Tosk
  • Istrian

    Hellenic languages

  • Greek
  • Cappadocian Greek
  • Pontic Greek
  • Standard Greek
  • Tsakonian
  • Cretan Greek

    Indo-Aryan languages

  • Romani

    Slavic languages

Eastern South Slavic

These are the extinct languages that were once spoken in the Balkans: