Grammatical features Case system The number of cases is reduced, several cases being replaced with prepositions, the only exception being Serbo-Croatian. In
Bulgarian and
Macedonian, on the other hand, this development has actually led to the loss of all cases except the
vocative. A common case system of a Balkan language is: •
Nominative •
Accusative •
Dative/
genitive (
merged) •
Vocative Syncretism of genitive and dative In the Balkan languages, the
genitive and
dative cases (or corresponding prepositional constructions) undergo
syncretism.
Example: Syncretism of locative and directional expressions Note: In Romanian this is an exception, and it only applies when referring to individual countries, e.g. '
, ', etc. The rule is that
into translates as "'
" when trying to express destination, e.g. ', '
, ', '''', etc. but even in this case the same preposition is used to express direction and location.
Verb tenses Future tense The future tense is formed in an
analytic way using an auxiliary verb or particle with the meaning "will, want", referred to as de-volitive, similar to the way the future is formed in English. This feature is present to varying degrees in each language. Decategorization is less advanced in fossilized literary Romanian '
and in Serbo-Croatian ', where the future marker is still an inflected auxiliary. In modern Greek, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian, Aromanian, and spoken Romanian, decategorization and erosion have given rise to an uninflected tense form, where the frozen third-person singular of the verb has turned into an invariable particle followed by the main verb inflected for person (compare Rom 1.sg. '
, 2.sg. ', 3.sg. '
> invariable ' > mod. ''''). Certain
Torlakian dialects also have an invariant future tense marker in the form of the proclitic third-person-singular present form of the verb 'to want': '''' () 'I will see', '
() "you will see", ' () 'he/she/it will see'.
Analytic perfect tense The analytic perfect tense is formed in the Balkan languages with the verb "to have" and, usually, a past passive participle, similarly to the construction found in Germanic and other Romance languages: e.g. Romanian '
"I have promised", Albanian ' "I have promised". A somewhat less typical case of this is Greek, where the verb "to have" is followed by the so-called ('invariant form', historically the aorist infinitive): . However, a completely different construction is used in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian, which have inherited from Common Slavic an analytic perfect formed with the verb "to be" and the past
active participle: , '
(Bul.) / , ' (Ser.) – "I have promised" (lit. "I am having-promised"). On the other hand, Macedonian, the third Slavic language in the sprachbund, is like Romanian and Albanian in that it uses quite typical Balkan constructions consisting of the verb
to have and a past passive participle (, '''' = "I have promised"). Macedonian also has a perfect formed with the verb "to be", like Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.
Renarrative mood The so-called
renarrative mood is another shared feature of the Balkan languages, including Turkish. It is used for statements that are not based on direct observation or common knowledge, but repeat what was reported by others. For example, Патот
бил затворен in Macedonian means "The road was closed (or so I heard)". Speakers who use the
indicative mood instead and state "Патот
беше затворен" imply thereby that they personally witnessed the road's closure.
Avoidance or loss of infinitive The use of the infinitive (common in other languages related to some of the Balkan languages, such as Romance and Slavic) is generally replaced with subjunctive constructions, following early Greek innovation. • in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Tosk Albanian, the loss of the infinitive is complete • in
demotic (vernacular) Greek, the loss of the infinitive was complete, whereas in literary Greek (
Katharevousa, abolished in 1976) it was not; the natural fusion of the vernacular with
Katharevousa resulted in the creation of the contemporary common Greek (Modern Standard Greek), where the infinitive, when used, is principally used as noun (e.g. "speaking, fluency, eloquence", "writing", "being", etc.) deriving directly from the ancient Greek infinitive formation. But its substitution by the subjunctive form when the infinitive would be used as a verb is complete. Most of the times, the subjunctive form substitutes the infinitive also in the cases when it would be used as a noun (e.g. / "to go, the act of going", / "to see/be seeing, the act of seeing" instead of the infinitive "", etc.) • in Aromanian and Southeastern Serbo-Croatian dialects, it is almost complete • in Gheg Albanian, the infinitive, constructed by the particle "me" plus the past participle, is in full use • in standard Romanian (prepositional phrase: '
+ verb stem) and Serbo-Croatian, the infinitive shares many of its functions with the subjunctive. In these two languages, the infinitive will always be found in dictionaries and language textbooks. However, in Romanian, the inherited infinitive form (', '
, and ') is now used only as a verbal noun. • Turkish as spoken in
Sliven and
Šumen has also almost completely lost the infinitive, but not verbal nouns using the same grammatical form. This is clearly due to the influence of the Balkan sprachbund. For example, "I want to write" in several Balkan languages: But here is an example of a relict form, preserved in Bulgarian:
Bare subjunctive constructions Sentences that include only a subjunctive construction can be used to express a wish, a mild command, an intention, or a suggestion. This example translates in the Balkan languages the phrase "You should go!", using the subjunctive constructions.
Morphology Postposed article With the exception of Greek, Serbo-Croatian, and Romani, all languages in the union have their
definite article attached to the end of the noun, instead of before it. None of the related languages (like other Romance languages or Slavic languages) share this feature, with the notable exception of the
northern Russian dialects, and it is thought to be an innovation created and spread in the Balkans. It is possible that postposed article in
Balkan Slavic is the result of influence from
Eastern Romance languages (Romanian or Aromanian) during the Middle Ages. However, each language created its own internal articles, so the Romanian articles are related to the articles (and
demonstrative pronouns) in Italian, French, etc., whereas the Bulgarian articles are related to demonstrative pronouns in other Slavic languages.
Numeral formation The Slavic way of composing the numbers between 10 and 20, e.g. "one + on + ten" for eleven, called superessive, is widespread. Greek does not follow this. Albanian has preserved the
vigesimal system, which is considered to be an remnant from a Pre-Indo-European language. The number 20 is described
njëzet and 40 as
dyzet. In some dialects '''' '60' and '''' '80' still may be used. However, these may also be later innovations, specifically among the Arbëreshë where they're found, as none of the old authors are found to have used anything beyond dyzet (forty), with Buzuku, the oldest known, using it exclusively in njëzet (twenty). All other Balkan languages lack at this.
Clitic pronouns Direct and indirect objects are cross-referenced, or
doubled, in the verb phrase by a
clitic (weak) pronoun, agreeing with the object in gender, number, and case or case function. This can be found in Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian. In Albanian and Macedonian, this feature shows fully grammaticalized structures and is obligatory with indirect objects and to some extent with definite direct objects; in Bulgarian, however, it is optional and therefore based on discourse. In Greek, the construction contrasts with the clitic-less construction and marks the cross-referenced object as a topic. Southwest Macedonia appears to be the location of innovation. For example, "I see George" in Balkan languages: Note: The neutral case in normal (
SVO) word order is without a clitic: "." However, the form with an additional clitic pronoun is also perfectly normal and can be used for emphasis: "." And the clitic is obligatory in the case of a topicalized object (with OVS-word order), which serves also as the common colloquial equivalent of a passive construction. "."
Adjectives The replacement of synthetic adjectival comparative forms with analytic ones by means of preposed markers is common. These markers are: • Bulgarian: • Macedonian: (prepended) • Albanian:
më • Romanian:
mai • Modern Greek: πιο (pió) • Aromanian:
(ca)ma Macedonian and Modern Greek have retained some of the earlier synthetic forms. In Bulgarian and Macedonian these have become proper adjectives in their own right without the possibility of [further] comparison. This is more evident in
Macedonian: виш = "higher, superior", ниж = "lower, inferior". Compare with similar structures in
Bulgarian: = "(the) higher, (the) superior" ( = "(the) [more] higher, (the) [more] superior";
= "(the) ([most]) highest, supreme"; (also spelled as sometimes) = "low, lower, inferior", it can also possess further comparative or superlative as with above. Another common trait of these languages is the lack of suppletive comparative degrees for the adjective "good" and "bad", unlike other Indo-European languages.
Suffixes Also, some common suffixes can be found in the language area, such as the diminutive suffix of the Slavic languages (Srb. Bul. Mac.) "-ovo" "-ica" that can be found in Albanian, Greek and Romanian.
Vocabulary Loanwords Several hundred words are common to the Balkan union languages; the origin of most of them is either
Greek,
Bulgarian or
Turkish, as the
Byzantine Empire, the
First Bulgarian Empire, the
Second Bulgarian Empire and later the
Ottoman Empire directly controlled the territory throughout most of its history, strongly influencing its culture and economics. Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian also share a large number of words of various origins:
Calques Apart from the direct loans, there are also many
calques that were passed from one Balkan language to another, most of them between Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Aromanian and Romanian. For example, the word "ripen" (as in fruit) is constructed in Albanian, Romanian and (rarely) in Greek (
piqem,
a (se) coace, ψήνομαι), in Turkish
pişmek by a derivation from the word "to bake" (
pjek,
a coace, ψήνω). Another example is the wish "(∅/to/for) many years":
Note: In
Old Church Slavonic and archaic
Eastern South Slavic dialects, the term сполай(j) ти (spolaj ti) was commonly used in meaning
thank you, derived from the Byzantine Greek (is polla eti). Idiomatic expressions for "whether one or not" are formed as "-not-". "Whether one wants or not": This is also present in other Slavic languages, e.g. Polish
chcąc nie chcąc.
Phonetics The proposed phonological features consist of: • the presence of an unrounded central vowel, either a mid-central
schwa or a high central vowel phoneme •
ë in Albanian;
ъ in Bulgarian;
ă in Romanian;
ã in Aromanian • In Romanian and Albanian, the schwa is developed from an unstressed • Example: Latin
camisia "shirt" > Romanian
cămașă , Albanian
këmishë ) • The schwa phoneme occurs across some
dialects of the Macedonian language, but is absent in the
standard. • some kind of
umlaut in stressed syllables with differing patterns depending on the language. • Romanian: • a mid-back vowel ends in a low glide before a nonhigh vowel in the following syllable. • a central vowel is fronted before a front vowel in the following syllable. • Albanian: back vowels are fronted before
i in the following syllable. • The presence of or but not The first feature also occurs in Greek, but it is lacking in some of the other Balkan languages; the central vowel is found in Romanian, Bulgarian, some dialects of Albanian, and Serbo-Croatian, but not in Greek or Standard Macedonian. Less widespread features are confined largely to either Romanian or Albanian, or both: • frequent loss of
l before
i in Romanian and some Romani dialects • the
alternation between
n and
r in Albanian and Romanian. • change from
l to
r in Romanian, Greek and very rarely in Bulgarian and Albanian. • the raising of
o to
u in unstressed syllables in Bulgarian, Romanian and Northern Greek dialects. • change from
ea to
e before
i in Bulgarian and Romanian. Not all linguists agree there are any phonological features associated with Balkan sprachbund. ==See also==