Telling neighbours apart: the Balkans
South-eastern Europe fits a lot of countries into a small area. A few hours' drive can take you across three borders, through two or three alphabets and past signs in several languages. That sounds daunting, but it is good news for a player: the writing changes sharply at each border, even where the hills and fields look the same on both sides. This guide shows how to use alphabets, special letters, everyday words, landscapes and buildings to tell the countries of the Balkans apart.
It covers Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. People draw the edges of "the Balkans" in different places, so think of this as a guide to the whole south-eastern corner of Europe.
Step one: which alphabet?
Three alphabets are in everyday use here: Latin (the one you are reading now), Cyrillic and Greek. Naming the alphabet before anything else cuts the list of possible countries straight away.
- Greek is used in Greece. Outside the region, it is also the main alphabet of Cyprus.
- Cyrillic is the main alphabet in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and one of two alphabets in Serbia.
- Latin is used in Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo and Romania, and alongside Cyrillic in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Greek and Cyrillic share some letter shapes, so be careful. Greek Π and Cyrillic П look the same, as do Greek Γ and Cyrillic Г, and Greek Φ and Cyrillic Ф. To be sure, find a letter that belongs to only one alphabet. Greek has Σ, Ω, Ψ and Ξ, and the small letters λ and ς. Cyrillic has Ж, Ш, Я, Ч, Ц and И. Two pairs make a quick test: in most lettering, Cyrillic Л has a flat top and Д stands on two little feet, while Greek Λ and Δ are plain pointed shapes.
Several countries mix alphabets, which is worth knowing before you rule anything out:
- In Serbia, Cyrillic is the official script, but Latin letters are common too, especially on shops and adverts. Road direction signs usually give each place name in both alphabets, Cyrillic first.
- In Bosnia and Herzegovina, both alphabets are official. Some areas use mostly Latin, others mostly Cyrillic, and many signs show both.
- In Montenegro, both alphabets are official as well, though Latin is the one you will usually see.
- In Kosovo, Albanian and Serbian are both official languages, and many official signs show both.
- In Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Greece, main road signs often repeat place names in Latin letters for visitors. The local alphabet normally comes first, so read the top line. In parts of North Macedonia where many people speak Albanian, signs often add Albanian as well.
Step two: the special letters
Once you know the alphabet, look for the extra letters each language adds. A single one is often enough to name the language.
Latin-alphabet languages
- Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin written in Latin letters share č, ć, đ, š and ž, plus the letter pairs lj, nj and dž. A ć or an đ puts you firmly in this group.
- Slovenian uses č, š and ž but has no ć and no đ. If you keep seeing č, š and ž and never a ć, think Slovenia. Slovenian also spells car words with a v: avto, avtobus and avtocesta (motorway), where Croatian has auto, autobus and autocesta.
- Albanian uses ë and ç, plus letter pairs such as dh, gj, rr, sh, th, xh and zh. The ë is very common, often at the end of a word, as in Shqipëri, Albania's own name for itself. The word rruga (street or road) on street name signs is a giveaway.
- Romanian uses ă, â, î, ș and ț, and no other language of the region uses ă, ș or ț. As a Romance language, it has many words that look familiar if you know some Italian, French or Spanish: strada (street), centru (centre), ieșire (exit).
Cyrillic-alphabet languages
- Serbian Cyrillic has ђ and ћ, which no other language here uses, and shares ј, љ, њ and џ with Macedonian. It has no ъ, щ, ю or я.
- Macedonian has ѓ, ќ and ѕ, which are its own, along with ј, љ, њ and џ.
- Bulgarian has none of those. Instead it uses ъ as a very common vowel (the country's own name is България), along with щ, ю and я, which neither Serbian nor Macedonian uses.
That makes the Cyrillic test quick. A Latin-looking ј means Serbian or Macedonian, never Bulgarian. A ъ or щ means Bulgarian. A ѓ or ќ means Macedonian, and a ђ or ћ means Serbian.
Step three: words on signs
Within the Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin group, the letters are shared, so words have to do the work. Two kinds of difference stand out.
The first is how one old vowel is spelt. In Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, many words contain ije or je, where standard Serbian as used in Serbia usually has a plain e: mlijeko and mleko (milk), rijeka and reka (river), lijepo and lepo (nice). The Croatian port city of Rijeka is simply named "river".
The second is vocabulary. A pharmacy is a ljekarna in Croatia, an apoteka in Serbia, Montenegro and much of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a lekarna in Slovenia. A motorway is an autocesta in Croatia, an avtocesta in Slovenia and an autoput in Serbia.
Local council names are worth learning too, because they appear on town halls, boundary signs and official buildings across the region:
- Slovenia: občina
- Croatia: općina, while larger towns use grad (town)
- Serbia and Montenegro: opština or општина
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: općina or opština, depending on the area
- Albania: bashkia; Kosovo, in Albanian: komuna
- North Macedonia: општина; Bulgaria: община
- Greece: Δήμος (dímos)
- Romania: primăria (the town hall)
Notice how the Bulgarian word uses щ where Macedonian and Serbian write шт. Small spelling differences like this are often the quickest way to separate languages that share an alphabet.
Landscapes of the region
The Adriatic coast, from Slovenia's short stretch of shore through Croatia and Montenegro down to Albania, is built of limestone. Expect bare white and grey rock, scrubby bushes, pines and cypresses, olive and fig trees and very clear sea, often with islands offshore; Croatia's coast is especially long and dotted with islands. Bosnia and Herzegovina also reaches the sea, along a very short stretch of coast around Neum.
Limestone country like this is called karst, a word taken from the Kras plateau, which lies mostly in Slovenia. Karst has few surface streams but many caves and sinkholes, and its fields are often edged with dry stone walls built from rocks cleared out of the soil.
Behind the coast rise the Dinaric Alps, a long band of mountains running south-east through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Inland, these mountains are green and heavily forested, with deep river valleys. Slovenia's north is truly Alpine, with sharp peaks and high meadows. Further east, the Carpathians curve through Romania, and the Balkan Mountains run across Bulgaria from west to east. It is these mountains that gave the whole peninsula its name.
The flattest land lies in the north and along the Danube. North-eastern Croatia, northern Serbia and western Romania share the edge of the great Pannonian Plain: huge flat fields of maize, wheat and sunflowers, long straight roads, and villages often strung out along a single street. The Danube then forms much of the border between Romania and Bulgaria, with wide farmland on both sides.
Further south the climate gets drier. Much of Greece, North Macedonia and southern Bulgaria has hot, dry summers that turn the grass golden brown, with vineyards, cypresses and rocky, scrub-covered hills, and olive groves especially in Greece. North Macedonia also has large mountain lakes, including Lake Ohrid, which it shares with Albania. For more on reading scenery, see our guide to landscapes, plants and soil.
Buildings and everyday details
Orange-red clay roof tiles cover houses almost everywhere in the region, so roof colour alone won't separate these countries. Look at how the houses are built instead. In many inland areas, houses are built one floor at a time, so walls of bare red clay blocks waiting to be plastered, and steel bars sticking up from a flat roof ready for the next storey, are a common sight.
Slovenia leans towards the Alps: steeper roofs, wooden balconies and the kozolec, a tall wooden hayrack that looks like a freestanding fence with its own little roof. It is something of a national symbol, and spotting one is a strong hint. Along the Adriatic coast, older houses are often built of pale stone, with wooden shutters frequently painted green or brown.
In Greece, look at the rooftops: solar water heaters, a flat panel with a round tank above it, are everywhere. Small roadside shrines shaped like miniature churches, standing on posts, are a common sight along Greek roads. On many islands, houses are whitewashed cubes with doors and shutters in bright colours, often blue.
In northern Romania, especially in Maramureș, tall carved wooden gates stand in front of village houses. Across rural Romania, and in country areas elsewhere in the region, hay is often still stacked around a tall central pole.
Places of worship give a gentle hint. Domed Orthodox churches are typical of Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. Catholic churches with tall, pointed bell towers are typical of Slovenia and Croatia. The slender minarets of mosques are a familiar sight in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and parts of North Macedonia. Many areas have a mix, so treat this as a light hint rather than proof. Our guide to architecture as a clue goes further.
The whole region at a glance
| Country | Alphabet on signs | Letters to look for | Useful words | Landscape |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slovenia | Latin | č š ž, no ć or đ | občina, avtocesta | Alps, forests, karst |
| Croatia | Latin | č ć đ š ž, "ije" spellings | općina, ljekarna | long coast and islands, karst, flat north-east |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Latin and Cyrillic | ć đ or ђ ћ, "ije" spellings | općina or opština | mountains, forests, river valleys |
| Serbia | Cyrillic and Latin | ђ ћ or ć đ, "e" spellings | општина, apoteka, autoput | flat north along the Danube, hills further south |
| Montenegro | mostly Latin | č ć đ š ž, "ije" spellings | opština | limestone mountains dropping to the sea |
| Kosovo | Latin; Albanian and Serbian | ë ç | komuna | wide plains ringed by mountains |
| Albania | Latin | ë ç rr sh xh | bashkia, rruga | mountains, coast, olive groves |
| North Macedonia | Cyrillic, Albanian in places | ѓ ќ ѕ | општина | mountains, dry hills, lakes |
| Bulgaria | Cyrillic | ъ щ ю я | община | Balkan Mountains, Danube plain, Black Sea coast |
| Greece | Greek | Σ Λ Δ Ω | Δήμος, οδός (street) | dry rocky hills, olives, islands |
| Romania | Latin | ă â î ș ț | primăria, strada | Carpathians, rolling hills, Danube plain |
Near misses: making the scoring work for you
A guess that shares a border with the right country earns 2 points, and in this crowded corner of Europe many countries share borders. When you are stuck between a few neighbours, you can pick the guess that is safest.
- If you see ć or đ but can't choose between Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, guess Bosnia and Herzegovina. It borders all three of the others, so among these four it always scores at least 2.
- If you see Cyrillic but can't pin down the language, Serbia borders Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, which makes it a safe middle choice.
- Albanian writing points to Albania or Kosovo, which border each other. Albania also borders North Macedonia and Montenegro, where Albanian appears on signs in some areas.
- Romanian, Slovenian and Greek are more clear-cut: once you have spotted ș, a Slovenian word or a Σ, go for the country itself.
Try it: Play a Solo game limited to Europe. Each time you land in the south-east, say the alphabet out loud first, then hunt for one special letter such as ć, ë, ș, ђ, ѓ or ъ before you look at anything else.
For more on reading unfamiliar writing, see how to read the world's alphabets, and for Spain and Portugal, Czechia and Slovakia and the Nordic countries, read telling European neighbours apart.