How similar are Balkan languages?

(Macedonian and Slovenian languages remain different.) Before the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, citizens of the region generally spoke a language known as Serbo-Croatian. As each country gained independence, the local version of the language was renamed.

How did Slavs come to Balkans?

The settling of the Slavs on Balkan Peninsula began in the 6th century with Slavs’ raids into Byzantium and ended with permanent colonisation of the large number of Slavs in the Balkans (among which the Serb tribes) in the first half of the 7th century.

Are Balkan languages Slavic?

From their homeland in east-central Europe (Poland or Ukraine), the Slavic languages have spread to the territory of the Balkans (Bulgarian; Macedonian; Slovene; and Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin [sometimes grouped together as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian]), central Europe (Czech and Slovak).

What is the main language of the Balkans?

The Balkan languages are traditionally defined as Albanian, Modern Greek, Balkan Romance (Romanian, Aromanian, and Meglenoromanian), and Balkan Slavic (Bulgarian, Macedonian, and the southernmost dialects of the former Serbo-Croatian, which dialects are called Torlak).

What language do the Balkans speak?

Where did Balkan Slavs come from?

Divided between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires for centuries, the South Slavic people originate from the region of the Balkan Peninsula known in the twentieth century as Yugoslavia, or Jugoslavija (jug = “south”; slaveni = “Slavs”).

Where did Slavic languages come from?

Slavic languages descend from Proto-Slavic, their immediate parent language, ultimately deriving from Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor language of all Indo-European languages, via a Proto-Balto-Slavic stage.

Why did the Balto-Slavic language diverge?

The Slavic branch of the Balto-Slavic sub-family of Indo-European languages underwent rapid divergence as a result of the spatial expansion of its speakers from Central-East Europe, in early medieval times.

Why are there so many Slavs in the Balkans?

There can be two logical explanations for this: Modern Balkan nations are direct descendants of the tribes of Mesolithic Europe (Bosnia has whopping 55-71 of I2a2) Slavs absorbed local population in the VI century AD when, according to some, they had settled on Balkans for the first time.

How many Balto-Slavic mtDNAs are there?

To do so, we analyze 6,876 mtDNAs, 6,079 NRYs and 296 whole genome SNP profiles representing all extant Balto-Slavic populations, of which 917, 2,392 and 70, respectively, are reported here for the first time. We complement our genetic study with linguistic evidence, in particular by refining the phylogeny of the extant Slavic languages.

What is the Slavic gene?

The Slavic Gene. Genetic proof of common origin of all Slavs. Enclosed pictures and maps show the common genetic origin of all Slavs. Slavs are not only a nation, but a unique race of people.