The Balkans was the first sprachbund to be identified as such. (We treat sprachbund as a German loanword into English, like pretzel). It has been called "the world's most famous contact situation" (Thomason and Kaufman 1985:95). This course will be a general introduction to Balkan linguistics, covering the sociolinguistic situation, theoretical and methodological considerations, phonology, lexicon and semantics, morphosyntax, syntax and pragmatics. The instructors’ book on the Balkan languages (to be published in the Cambridge University Press’s Green Series) will serve as our background and jumping off point.