Southeast Europe's Balkan peninsula is home to numerous languages that have come to converge structurally and lexically, due to complex social factors involving contact among speakers of these languages, constituting a 'sprachbund'. This volume provides the first comprehensive, book-length survey of the Balkan languages in English. It covers the full range of languages involved in the Balkan convergence zone, including Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Judezmo, Macedonian, Meglenoromanian, Romani, Romanian, Torlak, and West Rumelian Turkish. Balkan convergences - 'Balkanisms' - are presented, considering the grammatical domains of phonetics, phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and lexicon. It gives attention to relevant notions of contact linguistics and to the history of the field, while also introducing key conceptual innovations. Providing fresh data and perspectives on the most studied intense contact situation, this work is essential reading for anyone interested in Balkan languages. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

‘This groundbreaking, data-rich handbook on Balkan linguistics is the first to appear in English and utilize socially anchored historical linguistics to account for Sprachbund phenomena. This is an immensely readable book whose chapters can be read independently of one another making it useful as a reference, textbook, as well as an indispensable resource for any scholars interested in historical and areal linguistics, typology and Sprachbund phenomena.’

Grace Fielder - Professor Emerita, Russian & Slavic Studies, University of Arizona

‘The Balkan languages is central to the study of contact linguistics. This comprehensive volume is the definitive resource on the linguistic issues, empirical, methodological, and theoretical, underpinning the study of the Balkan sprachbund and of language contact and convergence more generally.’

Lenore A. Grenoble - John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago

‘Working from decades of research, Friedman and Joseph explain the complex linguistic phenomena resulting from the interplay of Balkan languages, geography, and history, never losing sight of the fact that it is not languages that are in contact, but the people who use them. The breadth of coverage of their study is unsurpassed. Every page gives the reader new vantage points from which to consider the complex, intertwined histories of the peoples of the Balkans and the resulting Balkan Sprachbund.’

Christina E. Kramer - Professor Emerita, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto