Languages of the Balkans
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. 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
Albanian
- Arvanitika
- Northwestern Arvanitika
- Southcentral Arvanitika
- Thracean Arvanitika
- Gheg
- Standard Albanian
- Tosk
Hellenic languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Slavic languages
Eastern South Slavic
Transitional dialects
- Transitional Bulgarian dialects
- Transitional Serbo-Croatian dialects (Našinski/Torlakian)
Western South Slavic
- Serbo-Croatian (with its standard registers Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian)
- Slovene
Romance languages
- Aromanian
- Istriot (in western Istria)
- Istro-Romanian (In eastern Istria)
- Italian (on the Adriatic coast)
- Ladino (in Greece, Turkey, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria)
- Megleno-Romanian (Meglenenitic)
- Romanian
Turkic languages
Caucasian languages
Extinct languages
These are extinct languages that were once spoken in the Balkans
- Dacian
- Dalmatian
- Eteocretan
- Eteocypriot
- Illyrian
- Lemnian
- Liburnian
- Ancient Macedonian
- Ottoman
- Paeonian
- Pelasgian
- Phrygian
- Thracian