ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Languages of the Balkans

Alright kiddo, let's talk about the languages of the Balkans. The Balkans is a region in Europe that has many countries like Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Each of these countries has its own language, but they are all related to each other because they come from the same family of languages, called the Slavic languages.

Now, when we say that the languages are related, it's kind of like saying that two people are related because they come from the same family. They might look and act different, but they share some traits that come from their family. In the same way, the languages of the Balkans share some traits that come from the Slavic language family.

But wait! There's more! There are also some languages in the Balkans that are not Slavic, like Albanian, which is actually its own language family. This means that Albanian is not related to any other language in the Balkans, but it still shares some similarities with other languages in the region because they have been in contact with each other for a long time.

Another interesting thing is that some of these languages use different alphabets. For example, Serbian and Bosnian can use either the Cyrillic or the Latin alphabet, while Bulgarian uses only Cyrillic. It's kind of like using different sets of block letters to write your name - they all make sense, but they look different.

So there you have it, kiddo! The languages of the Balkans are all related to each other in some way because they come from the same family of languages, but they also have their own unique traits and alphabets that make them special.