Editing Sprachbund (section)

===The Balkans===
{{Main|Balkan Sprachbund}}
The idea of areal convergence is commonly attributed to [[Jernej Kopitar]]'s description in 1830 of [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and [[Romanian language|Romanian]] as giving the impression of {{lang|la|"nur eine Sprachform ... mit dreierlei Sprachmaterie"}} ({{literal translation|only one language form with three kinds of language material}}),<ref>Jernej K. Kopitar, "Albanische, walachische und bulgarische Sprache", ''Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur'' 46 (1830): 59–106.</ref> which has been rendered by [[Victor Friedman]] as "one grammar with {{sic|the}} three lexicons".<ref>{{cite book
| contribution = One Grammar, Three Lexicons: Ideological Overtones and Underpinnings in the Balkan Sprachbund
| first = Victor A. | last = Friedman
| title = Papers from the 33rd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society
| publisher = Chicago Linguistic Society | year = 1997
| url = http://humstatic.uchicago.edu/slavic/archived/papers/Friedman-LgIdeologyCLS33.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Friedman (2000)">{{cite journal
| title = After 170 years of Balkan Linguistics: Whither the Millennium?
| first = Victor A. | last = Friedman
| journal = Mediterranean Language Review | volume = 12 | year = 2000 | pages = 1–15
| url = http://humstatic.uchicago.edu/slavic/archived/papers/Friedman-170yrsbalkanling.pdf}}</ref>

The [[Balkan Sprachbund]] comprises Albanian, Romanian, the [[South Slavic languages]] of the southern Balkans (Bulgarian, [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] and to a lesser degree [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]]), [[Greek language|Greek]], Balkan [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and [[Romani language|Romani]].

All but one of these are [[Indo-European languages]] but from very divergent branches, and Turkish is a [[Turkic language]]. Yet they have exhibited several signs of grammatical convergence, such as avoidance of the [[infinitive]], [[future tense]] formation, and others.

The same features are not found in other languages that are otherwise closely related, such as the other Romance languages in relation to Romanian, and the other Slavic languages such as Polish in relation to Bulgaro-Macedonian.<ref name="Thomason (2000)"/><ref name="Friedman (2000)"/>