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 (Slovenia, Romania)
Austrian German (Slovenia)

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

Bulgarian
Macedonian

Transitional dialects

Transitional Bulgarian dialects
Transitional Serbo-Croatian dialects (Gorani/Torlakian)

East Slavic

Pannonian Rusyn

Western South Slavic

Slovene
Serbo-Croatian with standardized varieties based on the Shtokavian dialect:
Bosnian
Croatian
Montenegrin
Serbian

Regiolects

Chakavian
Kajkavian

Romance languages

Aromanian
Istriot (in western Istria)
Istro-Romanian (In eastern Istria)
Italian (on the Adriatic coast)
Ladino (in Greece, Turkey, Bosnia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania)
Megleno-Romanian (Meglenenitic)
Romanian
Moldovan

Turkic languages

Crimean Tatar
Gagauz
Tatar
Turkish

Ugric languages

Hungarian

Extinct languages

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

Ancient Macedonian
Dacian
Dalmatian
Eteocretan
Eteocypriot
Illyrian
Lemnian
Liburnian
Ottoman Turkish
Paeonian
Pelasgian
Phrygian
Thracian