The Names Of The Balkans Explained

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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
The Balkans on Encyclopaedia Brittanica: www.britannica.com/place/Balkans
Balkan Etymology: forum.wordreference.com/threa...
Romania Etymology: linguistics.byu.edu/classes/L...
Bucharest: romaniatourstore.com/blog/tra...
Slovenia Etymology: www.quora.com/Whats-the-etymo...
Ljubljana: izi.travel/en/5a08-the-origin....
Croatia: www.etymonline.com/word/croatia
Zagreb: www.croatiaweek.com/how-croat....
Bosnia: www.etymonline.com/word/bosnia
Herzegovina: www.etymonline.com/word/Herze...
Sarajevo: www.etymonline.com/word/sarajevo
Montenegro: treasures-in-disguise.net/mont...
Podgorica: www.itinari.com/gorica-hill-a...
Serbia: forum.wordreference.com/threa...
Belgrade: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade
Kosovo: www.indexmundi.com/kosovo/cou...
Bulgaria Etymology: www.etymonline.com/word/bulgaria
Sofia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia
Macedonia: www.etymonline.com/word/maced...
Skopje: www.names.org/n/skopje/about#....
Albania: www.etymonline.com/word/albania
Tirana: www.worldmayor.com/worldmayor_...

[@NameExplain]

Where from the Balkans are you watching from?

[@Art-zn6ji]

Kosovo also name explain thank you for treating my country like a country

[@Gola773]

Romania

[@user-xn9um6ne2q]

Greece *hint hint*

[@birdy_]

North Macedonia should be called Macedonia, everything because of Greece:(

[@karlo7167]

Croatia

[@rayjay6989]

"Greece and Turkey just don't share as much common history with the other nations" The Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires want to know your location

[@i.hate.swedish.ISRAELUBERALLES]

We eat same shit swim in same sea and still hate eachother patheticly

[@liltinglullaby3282]

@@i.hate.swedish.ISRAELUBERALLES Balkans in a nutshell.

[@catatonicbug7522]

The location of the Ottomans is at the foot of the recliner!

[@sticlavoda5632]

The byzantine empire did not over all which is considered part of the balkans . Neither did the Romans. Only a small ammout of romania was part of the byzantine empire ( about the same ammout which is geographically part of the balkans today) and only about half of the country was part of the roman empire ( i am fundementally erong with distinguishing the byzantine empire from the eastern section of the roman empire . They are one and the same )

[@TKOS96]

@@sticlavoda5632 Before the Roman empire fell, Byzantine, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was part of it. And there are plenty of cities on the Balkans which started as Roman or Greek settlements.

[@rodrigodepierola]

I originally read the tile as "The Balkans Explained" and I was like "aren't we ambitious?"

[@Squidynx]

This is the first time I’ve heard anyone not consider Greece a Balkan nation but also consider Romania part of the Balkans

[@speedwagon1824]

How is Greece not in the Balkans?

[@just...thefbi6351]

Romania is balkan

[@cpt.dimitra]

@@speedwagon1824 in fact only north greece can consider balkan the south and the islands are definitely south europe like italy malta spain and portugal

[@Azmodan3000]

Strict geographically the balkan peninsula is the land south of the Danube. Romania is considered balkan from a political point of view.

[@annadrew4]

@@Azmodan3000 We are also genetically balkan. I did a DNA test and I have 86% balkan.

[@Xastor994]

I'm from the Balkans and this is the first time I hear that someone doesn't consider Greece a Balkan country lol

[@Cream12345Ice]

I always considered it that

[@mackycabangon8945]

yea thats the first time too

[@bleddynwolf8463]

i never thought of it as one, saw it as more of a medetaranian country.

[@GormTheElder]

That's funny, I have never met a person who considered Greece a part of the balkans. I think where I am from "balkan" means former yugoslavia, because Bulgaria and Romania is not considered balkan either.

[@clocker9321]

its literally on the peninsula

[@palamaro1603]

Listen, Greece is an absolute Balkan nation. It is completely within the Balkans, is culturally very much Balkan, and shares a lot of history with other Balkan nations, since, you know, history goes beyond Yugoslavia. Whether they think it is degrading to be a Balkan nation or not, them being a Balkan country is still a fact.

[@palamaro1603]

@Devil's sock Serbia is not completely within the Balkans either, neither is Croatia. But they're still considered as Balkan nations. As for the degrading thing, I meant that Greece and many other countries in the Balkans don't like being in the Balkans, so they like to pretend they aren't, i.e Romania and Slovenia. But otherwise I think we agree on most things.

[@palamaro1603]

@@christostsikrikas9304 There's no such thing as a Balkan people. If you ask a Serb if he's "Balkanian" he'll look at you like you're an idiot and tell you he's a Serb. Non-brainwashed Serbs at least. It's a long story but, in Serbia there are two gruips, those who love the term Balkan, and those who hate it.

[@letnjiznoj]

@@palamaro1603 the groupations are highly political In serbia we learn that it's a south european country because of the stigma of being southeastern and in estonia they teach it's a northern european country because of the stigma of being eastern

[@palamaro1603]

@@letnjiznoj I agree. That's what I'm talking about. srbija do tokija

[@bojanstare8667]

@@palamaro1603 Šteta što su Rusi prodali Aljasku. :D

[@diaztriwardhana3077]

oh, balkans and the love-hate relationship, our conflicts are just sibling rivalries

[@mackycabangon8945]

yep, definetly

[@EdgySniper497]

Sibling rivalries.... With a lot of war crimes from a lot of contestants...

[@diaztriwardhana3077]

@@EdgySniper497 true

[@mackycabangon8945]

@@EdgySniper497 yep, pretty normal here in the balkans

[@peripeteia6027]

Trueee

[@zaidkidwai7831]

If you split Balkan into “Baal” and “Kaan”. Then in Urdu it would mean “Hair Ear”.

[@palamaro1603]

I never knew I wanted to know that.

[@x_Arone_x]

Kaan is also a Turkish name 😂

[@palamaro1603]

@@x_Arone_x Kaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!

[@a.zenelji]

Omg in romane (one of the modern gyspy language) it means the same thing

[@x_Arone_x]

@@ameliajuan3127 :/

[@alexv5125]

I am greek and definitely disagree with what you say. One of my best friends is from Croatia, and we have very similar cultures. There is also a lot of history between Greece and Romania, Greece and Bulgaria, as well as Greece and the Serbs. Also, to my knowledge, a lot of these countries have their own names for themselves

[@binbasesatoktayyldran5236]

Same as a Turk

[@devidevi3410]

Shko mo rrot karit qiu mbyth

[@nikolajankovic96]

You gave Bosnia more coast then they can ever dream of

[@Borna258]

I'm Croatian and I've literally never heard of this theory. But the theory probably says it's from a proto-Slavic word, not Russian. The most popular folk theory is that it comes from a probably fictional person from Croatian history called Hrvat.

[@TheExtremeCube]

Ja sam cuo teoriju da hrvat potice od rvati

[@randomnessrules4971]

Fun fact: Nauru is not a Balkan state.

[@invictidomini6846]

And what’s your evidence..... exactly you don’t have any how dare you say Nauru it’s not a Balkan country!!! You idiot sandwich!!!

[@LuinTathren]

How is that fun?

[@darkstar2874]

This made me laugh more than it probably should have

[@theuniversalstegosaurus7911]

Evidence? Yeah exactly

[@randomnessrules4971]

@@invictidomini6846 It's in the middle of the Pacific.

[@aaronodonoghue1791]

Today I learned that Pristina has nothing to do with the word "pristine"

[@Cream12345Ice]

Also the š is pronounced like sh, same with č or ć being ch

[@aaronodonoghue1791]

@@Cream12345Ice I figured it was spelled with an Š and not an S from Patrick's pronunciation, but when I first saw it written down, I assumed it was pronounced to rhyme with "Christina". If I'm not mistaken there is also a letter Ž which sounds like the G in "beige" or the S in "fusion"

[@Cream12345Ice]

@@aaronodonoghue1791 yeah, there's also đ which is like the letter j or sometimes g in english words, like jail or magic.

[@Cream12345Ice]

@@aaronodonoghue1791 also lj and nj are actually counted as letters because they're pronounced as a unique sound. Nj would be like the ñ in Spanish, and lj would be like ll in Spanish. I dont really know an English comparison off the top of my head

[@aaronodonoghue1791]

@@Cream12345Ice "Onion" for nj (or ñ in Spanish like "España"), and "million" for lj (also ll in Spanish like "llaves" in some dialects)

[@cypoopie]

C in slavic languages sounds like "ts"

[@AR-zq2kf]

or like "zz" in "pizza"

[@EnigmaticLucas]

/ts/ is a close-enough English approximation, but it’s actually /t͡s/, which doesn’t exist in English.

[@AlexAhmedov]

ts - ц

[@InschrifterOfficial]

I cringed about the way he pronounced Podgorica

[@HeroManNick132]

In Cyrillic C is S while Č is ts (or Ц) in Cyrillic.

[@user-vm4jt8pb3b]

"One idea is that it means fallen material" repeats twice at 11:35

[@onefistdaddy]

i agree

[@gerihuginn2143]

If Greece and Turkey are not considered balkan then Romania shouldn't be either , especially if you go by the mountain ranges . Romania's Dobrogea region is not part of the mountain chain and is small just like Eastern Thrace part of Turkey. Romania is a Carpathian country , being equally split into central ,eastern and southeastern Europe.

[@bojanstare8667]

If Slovenia is on Balkan, you deserve to be also.

[@albanezu5103]

If Transylvania is central european then croatia slovenia are fully central european and serbia is half central european

[@jamespyle777]

Who really pronounces Croats as one syllable? I thought it was Crow-ahts.

[@BigBiLeft]

As a Croat, I can assure you that our name is two syllables, not one. To be fair, he fucked up a lot in this video, as I kind of expected.

[@bosniencommie1202]

@@BigBiLeft štaćes

[@arrore]

The dude is quite ignorant. I meant, he includes Slovenia and Romania but excludes Greece. Greece is FULLY Balkan in every sense. Greeks who try to escape this group are deluded :).

[@cocker3050]

@@arrore i think that because for some reason a lot of greeks claim they arent part of the balkans (even though they clearly are i have no idea why they even try to claim they arent) and the fact hes already done a video on greece, so there would be no reason to cause a controversy

[@bojanstare8667]

@@arrore If you have been in Greece, than you know they have Balkan character at all.

[@affanhocaoglu7835]

Fun fact: In Turkish yes balkan means steep and forested mountain range but if you write like "bal kan" it would mean honey blood.

[@bojanstare8667]

In what language?

[@joygun9415]

@@bojanstare8667 turkish

[@marna_li]

“C” is pronounced like “ts” and sometimes “s” in Slavic languages, like in the word Podgorica. Montenegro is called “Crna gora” (Black mountain) in its native tongue.

[@poke-champ4256]

Well monte=mountain and negro=black so its meaning in english or german whatever is black mountain too.

[@tonit4233]

Gora in Bulgarian means forest.

[@marna_li]

@@tonit4233 Yes. It seems like it also used to refer to any elevation covered by trees. So that is probably where the meaning in Bulgarian comes from..

[@SalixScape]

@@poke-champ4256 Montenegro apparently is Venitian (as in the regional language from Venice, Italy) for black mountain.

[@SalixScape]

Pretty sure 'c' is always 'ts' in Slavic languages unless part of a diagraph and/or when it has a diacritic mark. Perhaps you're thinking of the Cyrillic 'с' that in the Latin alphabet would be 's'?

[@heropld]

So as a person living on the Balkans: Greece is in the Balkans geographically, Turkey on the other hand is 98-99% in Asia. *Blames Encyclopedia Britannica*

[@i.hate.swedish.ISRAELUBERALLES]

Greece is totally Balkan and Turkish balkans are reduced but Turkish people is minority in most of Balkan nations

[@x_Arone_x]

Dude 20 Million people lives in Thrace thats like 4/1 of Turkish population and there are people who immigrated from Thessalonski (selanik) personally i got a greek surname and i bet most of the people who borned in thrace has some kind of connections with balkans

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

@@x_Arone_x 4/1? So like, 4 out of every 1 turkish person lives there.

[@x_Arone_x]

@@macaroon_nuggets8008 oops the opposite

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

@@x_Arone_x lol

[@lightsoda7445]

*Name Explain:* - you titled these lands as "The Land of Slaves" @ 4:37 - this is surely a typo, as you meant "SLAVS" not "SLAVES" - Slavic does not come from the word Slaves - it comes from the Slavic word to "Celebrate" ("Slav") which means the same thing in all Slavic languages. Please correct this.

[@bojanstare8667]

Both you are wrong. In Slovenia live Slovenes not Slavs! That isthe same as you said that in Russia live Slavs. It is nonsens.

[@bojanstare8667]

Or to say that in Slovenia live Europeans. lol

[@Art-zn6ji]

I’m from the balkens and I know there will be arguments

[@Art-zn6ji]

@Alexa Tri well that’s fast

[@darkstar2874]

As someone living in a less... contentious part of the world, I can only imagine what it’s like knowing mentioning your country is probably gonna start a squabble. Canada had to deal with that a bit during the last Quebec referendum (and rarely from more radical First Nations activists) but it was nothing like what the Balkans must deal with.

[@sydneyolsen6717]

Same😂😂 (Well mostly, I’m half but I’ve lived there too)

[@peripeteia6027]

Same here! Balkan people just won't stop fighting

[@bojanstare8667]

@@peripeteia6027 It isthesame between Germany and UK, Germany and France. Same at whole world. Others are just more polite.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Balkans and the Caucasus, starting ethnic conflicts: 🤝

[@McGliga]

I have some constructive criticism here, as a Serb who lives on the Balkans, please do not get offended, i mean only good here 1. Greece culturally may not be Balkanic, but it definitely is geographically, as over 90% of its land is on the peninsula, hence why I personally believe it should have been mentioned, by cultural borders perhaps even Romania shouldn't be mentioned, given they are a romance country not a Slavic/Albanian one. But, as you said, you went by Encyclopedia Britannica, not your fault 2. On 4:35 and onward, you wrote "Slavs" as "Slaves". We don't really like that 3. I don't necessarily mind you mentioned Kosovo in your educational video about etymology, but what I do personally mind is you not mentioning the Serbian name for Kosovo which is "Kosovo and Metohija" as "Metohija" also has a relatively interesting etymology 4. Oh so many pronunciation mistakes, but i won't hold that against you as an English speaker, but one thing that's easily rectified is that pretty much all Slavic languages pronounce the letter "C" as "Ts", so it would be "Podgoritsa" instead of "Podgorika" 5. Near the end there is a technical mistake as you said the same thing twice in a row, that's just editing i assume Other than that, amazing video, keep up the good work and i hope your channel blows up even more in the future

[@bojanstare8667]

You claim about Slaves. I`m claiming about Slavs also. Slovenia is not state of Slavs but state of Slovenes. Is it Serbia state of Slavs? Or state of Serbians?

[@darreljones8645]

@4:40: You might want to change that graphic. "Slavs" aren't the same thing as "slaves", and greatly resent the idea that they are.

[@currently7886]

No and indeed it is the other way around, slave comes from the word slav

[@ekstrajohn]

I live in Belgrade, and what I have heard about my city is that it was named like so because on the Kalemegdan side which used to border Austro-Hungarian Empire, there is a hill that is prominent when looking at the city, and all the houses were painted white. That's why the city looked "white" from that side.

[@Eulers_Identity]

Kinda more like "Sivograd" nowadays sadly...

[@BigBiLeft]

All the mistakes/missing info I spotted in the video: -Greece and Turkey being kicked from the Balkans -no mention of Hrvatska/Crna Gora, jet mentioned Albania's native name?? -didnt look up how to pronounce words (Croat like croak, Podgorika) -Said Croatia comes from old Russian I would recommend asking people in r/askbalkans for help, honestly, if you wanted to know more.

[@bajlozi6873]

Yes! Finally someone who knows ask ballkans subreddit.

[@BigBiLeft]

@@bajlozi6873 it is such a great subreddit, I love so many of the people in there.

[@bajlozi6873]

@@BigBiLeft im part of it too but i dont comment much

[@kebabseverim3364]

Vojvodina isn't in Balkans

[@BigBiLeft]

@@kebabseverim3364 The mitteleuropa plague has spread to Vojvodina

[@nenol.6844]

I don't think excluding Greece and Turkey was the right move here

[@omerfarukerol9079]

Angry agean sounds

[@cpt.dimitra]

We greeks are more Mediterranean than balkan

[@kebabseverim3364]

Muslim= turk Orthodox= greek Catholic= italian

[@gecko5892]

@@cpt.dimitra Εξαρτάται από ποια μερια της Ελλαδασ εισαι, αμα εισαι από Θρακη, Μακεδονία, Θεσσαλία, και Ηπείρο τότε εισςι στα Βαλκάνια, η υπολυπη Ελλάδα, ναι είναι μεσογειακη η κουλτουρα, αλλά σε αυτά τα μέρη που σου έγραψα ειναι Βαλκάνικα, στο λέω γιατι μένω Πήλιο και εδω έχουμε κουλτουρα που τεριαζει περισσότερο στα Βαλκάνια αποτι στην Μεσόγειο

[@raresdumitras3291]

If I had a dime for every Romanian pissed off at being told their country is in the Balkans I would be a millionaire.

[@MrMantoko]

Romanians are not part of the Balkans. - (Meanwhile) Florin Salam, Costi ... Now prove me wrong :D

[@raresdumitras3291]

@@MrMantoko true, when they want to get wasted, Romanians do it Balkan style. But geographically we are not in the Balkans.

[@bogdan9939]

@@raresdumitras3291 Geographically Romania might not be Balkan (except for Dobrogea) But culturally Romania is Balkan

[@costealucia5357]

@@bogdan9939 Contains Balkan elements, is not balkan, of course you find many if you have balkan neighbors...duh!!

[@bogdan9939]

@@costealucia5357 no dude, we are Balkan. We take part in many Balkan organizations, events, groups. Plus there are soo many Balkan communities where Romania is considered a part of. Just look at any Reddit Balkan community for example

[@a.zenelji]

Cool videos!

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[@a.zenelji]

@@ameliajuan3127 shut up

[@lulcraft8196]

5:44 I just want to say that dalmatia didn't got it's name from dogs but from iliryan tribe called Delmats who lived there.

[@histguy101]

Yea, he's saying the dogs get their name from the place.

[@bsnow304]

4:33 Land of the slaves, huh?

[@jakubrossa7794]

yea that's a little bit hmmm

[@003mohamud]

@@jakubrossa7794 I mean considering the history of the word slave....

[@Eulers_Identity]

@@003mohamud hah it isn't exactly certain + exactly nobody likes that. I don't think everyone from these lands would proudly present themselves as "slaves" for 1000 years if that was so.

[@003mohamud]

@@Eulers_Identity No, what i meant is that the word Slav(which means glory?) didn't come from slave, but the other way around. The English word slave comes from the word Slav. Obviously Slav doesn't mean slave, that would be ridiculous.

[@Eulers_Identity]

@@003mohamud lol ok

[@kriegzyx5441]

Great! :)

[@WaterShowsProd]

If Bucharest means "city of joy" that would be really interesting because in Thailand the city of Buriram (which used to be an important city of The Khmer Empire) also means "city of joy". Then you could do a Name Explain about places with different names that have the same meaning.

[@elinakangas571]

I love that idea! :)

[@pseudonymshqipe854]

Bukur means beautiful in Albanian.

[@bojanstare8667]

Tailand language Telugu was influented by Sanskrit whichis an old Indo-European language (about 3000 years old). Also our (Slovenian) language hasabout 30% similarities of words root with Sanskrit. More old Sanskrit is, more similar is. We have word for country - dežela, which is the same in part of name Bangladesh. Desh means country. Also stan in our language means home or housing, wjich isapart of name of several states - Pakistan, Avganistan, Kazahstan etc.

[@WaterShowsProd]

@@bojanstare8667 Yes, the name Buriram is derived from Sanskrit, though the culture there is a mix of Khmer and Lao, along with a minority group called The Suay who live along the Thai-Cambodian border. There's a large Hindu temple atop an extinct volcano that was built during The Khmer Empire. While Thai is not an Indo-European language it does include a lot of loanwords from Sanskrit, particularly in official and academic, or scientific vocabulary; with religious vocabulary coming from Pali which was derived from Sanskrit. "Desh" also made its way into Thai as "Prathet" meaning "country" retaining spelling that indicates the "desh" origin, so it is wonderful to see the linguistic connection between Thailand and Slovenia. "Stan" as well is used in Thai "Sathaan" which means "place" or "sathaanakan" which means "situation".

[@bojanstare8667]

@@WaterShowsProd Interesting. For dežela I know that only our language inEurope has that word. Other Slavs say zemlja. But stan use almost all Slavs. In Slavs group of language is our of most archaic. We have also dual form of verb. & cases, single dual and plural, 9 different conjugation etc. Nice language for learning. He, he, he

[@liltinglullaby3282]

1. The 2 most debated are not Turkey and Greece, but Turkey and Romania. Going by pure geographical boundaries, only small portions of Turkey and Romania are on the Balkans. (Thrace and Dobruja respectively). The only part of Greece that's not the Balkans are the Aegean islands. 2. Greece and Turkey share a really long common history, in forms of the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empires respectively, and recent history include the Cyprus dispute. 3. Italy is never considered a Balkan country, only 1 single city, Trieste is located on the Balkan peninsula that is part of Italy.

[@popacristian2056]

The Romanians have a multimillennial history in common with other peoples in the (Balkans) area, and are also almost genetically identical to the Bulgarians, those in the former Yugoslavia but also very close to the Albanians, Greeks, Hungaryans and west Ukrainians.

[@Comski5]

Name Serbia comes from the word Sorb, which in old Slavic language means family/alliance. It could also mean a specific type/group of same people.

[@makouras]

The bird on Albania's flag is the Byzantine double-headed eagle, a widely used symbol in the Balkans and a sort of 'antagonist' to the star and crescent.

[@crimsonflood1643]

the star and crescent is a Muslim symbol right? if so its curious that Albania would have the antagonist symbol to it since it's a majority muslim country.

[@philip2009]

@@crimsonflood1643 yeah but the double headed eagle was used by many albanian nobles during medieval times, so its more important to their history. Also the star and crescent wasnt a muslim symbol. It was an Ottoman symbol and it even had history way before the Ottomans. It was an ancient symbol ussually connected with the city of Byzantion (Constantinople, now istunbul.)

[@SlimeEarts]

@@crimsonflood1643 the crescent and star were used by the pagan Illyrians before Islam. A lot of cultures around the world worshipped the sun and moon. The Illyrians were a people native to the Balkans.

[@gigasigma8373]

the albanian flag isnt taken from byzantines but influenced. Byzantines actually took it from the others. There were illyrian sculptures found in croatia showing a illyrian warrior with a spear and a shield that had a double headed eagle on it. The hittites also used the double headed eagle. It was very wide spread on the regions of anatolia, balkan and italic peninsula.

[@TankMarko]

Here is my opinion on who is Balkan: Trieste aswell as other parts of Italy that are historically and culturally Slovene Slovenia Carinthia (Southern part of Austria) Croatia Bosna Serbia Montenegro Macedonia Albania Bulgaria Romania Moldova Bugeac and northern Bukovina (Ukraine) Greece European part of Turkey (Istanbul/Constantinople etc.) The criteria I mostly use is either they are south slavs, claim to be Illyrians, were occupied by Turkey for a long time and if they are geographically within the Balkan (below Danube mostly)

[@user-mr9ob9xd7f]

KOS is the name of a type of a black bird in Serbian, ergo Kosovo (Land of Kos birds)

[@user-mr9ob9xd7f]

@Ron Lewenberg I believe bit was named before the battle however the whole region would be named after it later.

[@HeroManNick132]

Кос също е "черна птица" на български.

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic2089]

Kos also means „black bird” in Polish.

[@gigasigma8373]

Kosovo is a serbian name with greek origin. But the place was called dardania before serbs invaded it.

[@engineer695]

@@gigasigma8373 who tf invaded it?

[@georgios_5342]

10:05 Sofia means wisdom in Greek. The old name was Sardikì but after the large cathedral of Saint Sofia was built there it was renamed.

[@dantudormarinescu9402]

The old Bulgarian name was Sredets.As it is pretty close to "middle" I assume that it has something to do with Sofia being half way between the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Serdika or Serdica is older and might come from a Thracian tribe, serdeti.The meaning could be similar but the Thracian language is still largely unknown.

[@MissingGamer]

*I'm gonna say the k-word!*

[@greatbees4513]

karen

[@currently7886]

🇽🇰

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

"the k-word"

[@lanzsibelius]

kilogram?

[@16omar]

Kosovo is a country. Shut up

[@derfifaboss422]

0:54 Slovenia who swears they are in Central Europe: Am I a joke to you

[@pedjapedja5488]

I died when he said Podgorika

[@mfaizsyahmi]

One idea is that it means "fallen material." One idea is that it means "fallen material."

[@just_a_turtle_chad]

A Turtle approved these names.

[@birdy_]

Ok

[@doomi4055]

Ok Boomer

[@RachaelMarieNewport]

Hello again turtle you seem to be everywhere.

[@Edumt91]

The curious thing about Montenegro's name is that the it comes from Venetian and is used in most (if not all) western European languages, but they call themselves Crna Gora (which also literally translates to black mountain)

[@tudorpop961]

Crna Gora (Montenegro) Marea Neagră (Black Sea); and i’m from a city named Negrești in Romania......... what a racist region we are living in! 🤣🤣🤣

[@mafiotzi]

@@tudorpop961 Just because people can have dark skin that doesn't mean they own the rights to the Black color. There are plenty of black things aside humans.

[@tudorpop961]

@@mafiotzi you don’t get it!….. that was “black humour “!…..🤣🤣🤣

[@boki4258]

​@tudorpop961 Yeah😂😂😂 But jokes aside, those places are all called "black" because of their geography , not people

[@Marl3421]

The guy did the impossible. He explained something about the balkans

[@Myrtle2911]

Re: Kosovo-- I'm wondering if the "field of black birds" was so named *after* the battle and relates to the carrion birds who would have flocked to the field because of the battle, or the dead from the battle to be grim.

[@sapa1895]

Blackbird (Turdus merula), not any black bird. It comes from the SCB word кос.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@sapa1895 Bravo

[@henkeliezen4983]

Just a hypothesis; "Field of black birds" might be literally a field that has seen many battles. The black birds refering to crows, jackdaws and ravens pecking at the corpses of fallen soldiers.

[@bojanstare8667]

Bull shit. Kos isn`t crow or raven. It`s blackbird. Lol, what kind of language is English.

[@matijos2442]

For the montenegro capital, Podgorica, it could also mean "under mountain" since "gotica" is a form of the word "gora" meaning mountain. The -ica suffix means its a smaller one. So its a city under a small mountain. Thats my theory on the name doe

[@Danny-iq8rv]

Great video man! I just have one problem with it: Why did you spell Slavs like Slaves?

[@rickastley5321]

Albania original name was ARBËRIA , which means land made out of gold

[@hanspeter-kq1vw]

Then why did they change it?

[@rickastley5321]

@@hanspeter-kq1vw the name "albania" was used by foreigners , we didn't call ourselfses "albanians" we called ourselfes "arberor"

[@hanspeter-kq1vw]

@@rickastley5321 yes i know.my question was why Albanians now call their country “shqipëria” and not “Arbëria”? I heard that Albanians in Italy and the arvanites in Greece still call themselves arberor so I think it’s strange that those diaspora communities kept their original name while Albanians in Albania now call themselves differently.

[@sergejnikolic4377]

First name of albania was arbanas

[@rickastley5321]

@@hanspeter-kq1vw the name Shqiperia started appearing in 17-18th century by albania pashas it means "the land of the eagles" , that according to a well known myth throughtout Albania , Albanians were born by an eagle (the same way Turks say they are born of a grey wolf)

[@dariusfetescu2124]

4:10 for any more lore to the story I can tell you this: Bucur had a daughter that was kidnapped by some tatars or migratory ppl, so he did what a rational man whould do, he got his horse and ran up to the Dniester (Nistru in romanian, the river that is now the border between Moldavia and Ukraine) he killed them and got his daughter back, then, when he got back, in his sweet shed in the middle of the Romania plains, he founded the city from nothing, now his former shed A.K.A București has a population of over 2 million folks.

[@panicatack6318]

So Name Explain ventured in Balkans affairs. That's uhm... brave.

[@ameliajuan3127]

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[@nusproizvodjach]

I stopped watching when he said that Greece and Turkey were not linked to that part of the world and that it was up for debate what Balkan was.

[@teodortodorov1662]

Greece is part of the Balkans, but Turkey is not. Turkey has only 2% of it teritory on the Balkans and other 98% are in Asia.

[@joeshar.]

0:24 didn't know Denmark is a part of Scandinavia whereas Finland is not

[@fermintenava5911]

The connection seems to be mostly cultural, because these three countries have germanic languages and a similar mythology and history. Finland hasn't always been sovereign and also has a very different cultural background.

[@calvin4864]

Finland's culture and history is different to the Scandinavian countries. Especially as the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic languages all come from the same Germanic root, and often sound very similar. Norwegian and Danish are the examples where there's not a big dift between the languages. Whilst Finnish is not Germanic.

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

Norway, Sweden, and Finland together are called Fennoscandia.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@calvin4864 Scandinavia is peninsula. Finnland is closr to Russia and not on peninsula. Denmark is asscandinavian, becuse has thesame culture and very similar language. If Finnland is Scandinavian than also Russia is Scandinavian. Russia has border with Norway, Finland it hasn`t.

[@eleonora78]

Finlanda is not Scandinavian its correct,where did you Learn geography

[@ianeons9278]

Dardania and Dukagjini are other names to refer to Kosovo, with Dardania being named after the ancient Illryian Dardani Tribe, and Dukagjini referring to the medieval Albanian noble family, the Dukagjini

[@indigop38]

Why do you think Montenegro would seem “complex and hard to understand “ when it is the most obvious of any name mentioned? Who do you think your audience is ? Most people with any interest in Language and etymology would immediately know the meaning. Who writesh this idiocy ?

[@boki4258]

Calm down , buddy.

[@indigop38]

@@boki4258 is it typical to address a female as Buddy? I've never encountered that before. Feels inappropriate .

[@mrratman9472]

Belgrade was once part of Hungary, under the name 'Nándorfehérvár' or simply 'Fehérvár' which literally means white castle. But it wasn't the Hungarians who named the city, because the name Bjelgrad was first mentioned in 878, two decades before the Hungarians arrived to the Carpathian Basin.

[@isbadatnaming8526]

Nándor in early hungarian was meant for bulgarians.

[@dantudormarinescu9402]

Nadir was the hungarian name for Bulgars i.e. Protobulgarians aka Hunnobulgarians.

[@jasonyuen4691]

If you've included Romania in the video, why not Moldova?

[@popacristian2056]

Indeed. Moldova is in the east-part of Romanian nation.

[@berindemihail7447]

Why not Austria?

[@popacristian2056]

@@berindemihail7447 Yes. Also Hungary and Austria.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@berindemihail7447 Have you ever looked at map? lol

[@berindemihail7447]

@@bojanstare8667 yes I looked at the map. By what criteria is a country Balkan? Geographical position, and / or historical past, cultural, religious influence?

[@disamorforming2351]

Fun fact: the russian word for shed is "saraj". My whole life I thought of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina as been made of sheds where people live.

[@goransekulic3671]

Russians have a troubled history with Turks(two big Empires, who would've thought). Perhaps "saraj" and "sarayi" are related? And "saraj" was used as a mockery of what "sarayi" actually is(a palace ; I can't think of a bigger insult than to call a "palace" a "shed"). Fancy thinking, but still...

[@hoathanatos6179]

Sarai in Russian and Turkish both come from a common root meaning a dwelling or a house in Middle Persian. This root has been borrowed and has changed over the centuries in many languages meaning anywhere from curtain, tent, pavillion, shed, tavern, house, hall, inn, mansion, palace, and courtyard.

[@goransekulic3671]

@@hoathanatos6179 Aha, now I learned something new. Glad to hear I was onto something. And thus, wouldn't be half surprised if Rus people used this just to mock Turks and their "splendid saraylar". Thank you.

[@marmac83]

I keep thinking of cousin Balkie from Perfect Strangers.

[@sandybarnes887]

You sound old

[@SalixScape]

*Hears how Podgorica is pronounced* Did you know that the letter C is pronounced as 'ts' in all Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet except when followed by an H for a part of them as some use CH and some use H (and some use both) for the 'ch' sound in the Scottish word 'loch'.

[@eleonora78]

Porodica😀

[@peripeteia6027]

Cool video man!

[@AlBunch54]

Video Suggestion are there any Raleighs left like Sir Walter Raleigh

[@elinakangas571]

Who was Sir Walter Raleigh? :)

[@bojanstare8667]

@@elinakangas571 Pitty, that you don`t know sir Walter Raleigh. He is a legende. Just google it.

[@based_kumanovar4799]

The Name “Tirana” quite possibly is a different wording of “Tehran”. It’s founder Suleyman Pasha Bargjini, probably named it after the Persian city after campaigning against the Safavids

[@georgios_5342]

10:56 small correction. Skopje doesn't mean watchtower/guard post. It comes from Episkopi which would theoretically mean watchtower in ancient Greek, but because this is a Byzantine era town, the meaning of the name is most commonly translated as "Bishopric"

[@Chorophilax]

I see you everywhere bruh

[@georgios_5342]

@@Chorophilax ok, then you have good taste in videos I guess

[@dantudormarinescu9402]

Mainstream history says that the name comes from the Scupi ancient tribe. However , it is posibile that the site of Justinian Prima, the bishopric of emperor Justinian was here. Justinian was born in the nearby.

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

4:32 That is an unfortunate typo.

[@bojanstare8667]

Slovene not Slavs or Slaves. Slovene means that there live Slovene people. Slovene and Slavs are not the same. It is the same, when you name English people Germanic. They are Germanic nation, but not one and only. There are some other Germanic nations too. Understand what I mean?

[@oleksandrkaliuzhnyi5791]

I was going to put a like on the video before you screwed up mentioning "old Russian roots" for the name origin of Croatia - you either learn the history well and say that White Croats were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other west and east Slavic tribes in the area of modern-day Lesser Poland, Galicia (Ukraine), and Northeastern Bohemia, or use Ruthenian/Rus meaning modern Ukrainian instead

[@ianeons9278]

Fun Fact: Bucharest means "It's Beautiful" in Albanian (Bukur Eshte)

[@blu9371]

Wow...How sweet.

[@ianeons9278]

Albania's name actually comes from the ancient Illryian Tribe, the Albanoi, which means "White ones" in old western Greek. The name was latter carried on to the Roman city of Albanopolis.

[@seyl717]

Albanoi is a latin mispronounciation of Arbon, Arbon means farmer and its the name albanians called themselves up to the 18th century. Albanoi doesnt mean anything in albanian.

[@ralfhtg1056]

I only wonder: whenever there is a map in your video depicting Moldova, you display Moldova without Transnistria. Transnistria is part of Moldova!

[@partizanlegis]

Greece was always a part of Balkan culture and History. Alexander the Great conquered the Balkan peninsula and the Byzantine Empire had the Balkans under their control for centuries. Also, you mentioned the meaning of the word Balkan, and you had the Turkish meaning. Yet you excluded Turkey. Ok most of it's part is in Asia, but the eastern part is in the Balkan peninsula, and the Ottomans controlled the Balkan peninsula for at least 400 years.

[@cpt.dimitra]

Again greece is more Mediterranean than balkan and even our culture is closer to italians and spanish than serbians and bulgarians which the only thing in common is religion

[@gigasigma8373]

Byzantines werent all greeks. Byzantine empire was a multi ethnic empire which had greek as the official language and culture but the people were rather distinct with eachother. And there were more non greek emperors then greek ones.

[@partizanlegis]

@@gigasigma8373 i know this. However after the 1204 Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the empire controlled only parts of Greece and Asia Minor that were inhabited primarily by Greeks, so they adopted a Greek identity, though they still called themselves Romans. In During the Ottoman occupation the term Roman and Greek were used interchangeably, Rum Millet, Rumelia...

[@danadnauseam]

There's an editing error at 11:36.

[@djambu]

Podgorica - pod-gor-itsa. Pod being under, gor being mountain. It means, the city at the foothill.

[@aleksandaratanasovic8835]

L and J are together because Lj is a seperate letter in ex yu states. Љ in cyrilic. Someone probably pointed it out.

[@bojanstare8667]

Croates have the same letter in latine.

[@goransekulic3671]

Ajde da vidimo te komentare, bit će dobro! (Let's see these comments, this will be good!)

[@VladimirDonkov]

Let's prove that the Balkans are no longer a conflict zone. It's Friday. Have a glass of rakia and say "cheers" in your language. Наздраве!

[@doraspoljar697]

Živjeli!

[@tudorpop961]

Noroc! ... until y finish my pălinca then “conflict back”!🤣

[@user-yr3yc1uw4z]

Gia mas

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

Kosovo... Perhaps the reference to "Blackbirds" means crows/ravens that cleaned up (ate) the dead after the aforementioned battle.

[@bojanstare8667]

Kosisn`t crow or raven. It is blackbird. See translation. lol It is a way out of similarity with crow and raven. It is a nice bird who sings. I couldn`t say that crow and raven sings.

[@bojanstare8667]

@@optimusprinceps9875 HI!

[@ianeons9278]

Fun Fact: Yugoslavia means "South Slav Lands" in Serbo-Croatian.

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic2089]

in Podgorica, the c is pronounced as „ts”, so the name is pronounced „Podgoritsa”, not „Podgollika”. I know even though I’m not from the Balkans.

[@HistoryforThinkers]

*Angry Slavic Noises

[@AlexVSharp]

Well... you have pretty much butchered the pronunciations... :D Edit: Kosovo -> Kos (slav name for a common blackbird). A lot of battles were fought over those fields, and crows would always feast on the corpses. Edit#2: Frankly, I find it incredibly sad how little people know about these parts. Both in terms of history, and what's going on atm. So with that in mind, any publicity is good publicity...

[@Cadwaladr]

I know one word in Albanian, and it's gëzuar. It means cheers.

[@denissaliaj9459]

Gëzuar 🍻

[@user-yr3yc1uw4z]

I only know tsifsa ropt in albanian rip

[@lukacvitkovic8550]

Umm, source on that etymology of Croatia? Cos I NEVER heard of that particular one P.S. Fighting over a name plus the stories I heard from it.. Greece is definitely a Balkan nation

[@cpt.dimitra]

Again we greeks are more Mediterranean and we have more in common with italians and spanish and secondly we are balkan.

[@mlgmylittlegaben3763]

The Montenegro capital Podgorica quite literally means underthehill. Gorica means hill, it’s not a hills name.

[@bojanstare8667]

In Slovene Gorica means hill with vineyards.

[@petyamiteva2382]

I am Bulgarian and was a tour guide in Sofia and I have no idea where you are getting this misinformation from. The name of the Bulgars doesn’t come from the River Volga and the name of the capital most certainly ISN’T the name of someone called Sophia. It’s actually pronounced with the stress on the first syllable and comes from the name of a church that’s been there since around the 4th century AD called Hagia Sofia (meaning holy wisdom). NOT a person at all. Stop spreading misinformation please.

[@palamaro1603]

The Serbian word for the balkan mountains is the old mountain.

[@tudorpop961]

How can you read tilana instead of Tirana?

[@commando5112]

4:34 It says land of the S l a v e s.

[@bojanstare8667]

Lol, Slovenia means state of Slovene people. We are Slovene and not Slaven. Slavs is word for group of Slavic nations. Sloveni in Serbo-Croatian language is just fake to hide truth that Serbs and Croates are of Caucasian origin, were speaking Turcish language. Other Slavs nations haveother names for Slavs - Slavljani, Slovani etc. Just Serbs and Croates have stolen nameof our nation -Sloveni or Slovenci.

[@chriswicker6672]

Field of the Black Birds. The crows feasted on the corpses left behind after the battle.

[@bojanstare8667]

It isn`t crow or raven. It`s blackbird, another type of burd. See the translator.

[@chriswicker6672]

@@bojanstare8667 I dont like Europeans

[@bojanstare8667]

@@chriswicker6672 I think the same way to your people.

[@chriswicker6672]

@@bojanstare8667 racist

[@bojanstare8667]

@@chriswicker6672 Nice that racist say to other man that is racist. It is true that your freedom ends at the limit of another's freedom. If you don`t understand that, you aren`t racist but psychopath.

[@stipe3124]

It's Podgoritsa not "K"

[@jordanferrazza8700]

The Murray River in Australia is largely technically NSW so...

[@bojanstare8667]

And Australia is somewhere betweenChina and Nauru?

[@DoBetterAnteUp]

7:45 thats not how you pronunce the letter c in serbocroatian the way you pronunce c is by makeing the s sound and while your makeing it say the letter t

[@Dragonite_Tom]

You forgot Liberland 😔

[@ianeons9278]

Balkan is actually from Old Turkish and means "Land of Blood and Roses" not even kidding

[@gustre]

draw a straight line from triest to odessa. the landmass on the south of it i guess would be the balkan peninsula

[@alexandrub8786]

South of Danube,North of the Aegene Sea,west of theVlack Sea and East of the Adriatic Sea there is the Balkans

[@bojanstare8667]

@@alexandrub8786 Why to draw line between Trieste and Odessa? I will than draw line betweenKrim and Trieste. Is more natural. Or even Europa is peninsula origin in Asia.

[@arcohol3367]

the only joy in bucharest is when i am leaving it. i am getting depressed everytime i am in this city

[@lejs1974]

I think the word Hercegovina comes from the german word herzogtum, because in the slavic languages there doesnt exist such a word

[@bojanstare8667]

Erceg is of Slavic origin. German in Hercegovina - lol. Last at least hald German was Archduke of Austria and he was killed there.

[@alexandrub8786]

This video made me question if you are what romanians call "rârâit", which means that you confuse the letters/sounds R and L. Sorry i don't know the english word for it.

[@pussybaka5872]

In engleză ei zic rARE ( așa cu r mic și are cu lietre mari )

[@alexandrub8786]

@@pussybaka5872 mersi