ABSTRACT
Most aspects of the examination of culture and cultural encounters, a chronological focus on the past two centuries when coupled with geographical focus on the Balkans is quite appropriate and makes for an intellectually compelling and coherent framework for discourse and investigation. The examination of the role that Greek has played linguistically in the Balkans has led to a consideration not only of the many ways in which Greek has influenced neighbouring languages, but also of various aspects of Greek itself that have been affected by contact with the languages. There has been a tendency among many Balkan linguists to get caught up in the linguistic nationalism that pervades public policy in most Balkan nation-states, including Greece. The area of scholarship that has provided the insights is generally known as "Balkan Linguistics", the linguistic investigation of the languages of the Balkans and their interrelations. The overall Sprachbund is in a sense derivative from the clusters of localized contact and convergence.
