Sprachbund
Convergent language zone
A Sprachbund is a group of languages that share features not because they descend from a common ancestor, but because their speakers have been in close contact over time.
The term is German for "language league." Languages in a Sprachbund borrow grammar, sounds, or vocabulary from each other through proximity rather than inheritance: The Balkan Sprachbund includes Greek, Albanian, Romanian, and Bulgarian, which share features like a postposed definite article.
Process of approaching sameness
- linguistic diffusionTransmission of speech features
- borrowingTemporary taking of another's
- multilingualismMultiple language proficiency
- substratumFoundational layer beneath
bilingualism · code-switching · mutual influence · calque · loan translation · syntactic alignment
convergence
Process of approaching sameness
- linguistic diffusionTransmission of speech features
- borrowingTemporary taking of another's
- multilingualismMultiple language proficiency
substratum · bilingualism · code-switching · mutual influence · calque · loan translation · syntactic alignment
boundary crossing
Passing an established limit
definiteness
Quality of being exact
- word orderSentence structure pattern
- Balkan linguisticsSerbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Slovene
Sprachbundlanguage family
Related tongues from one source
linguistic isolation · proto-language · clade · language isolate
speech, speak, speaks, speaking, spoken, speaker, speakers, bund, bundle