Chapter 4 presents the lexical dimension to Balkan linguistic convergence, treating first loanwords from various sources, Balkan and non-Balkan, into the Balkan sprachbund languages, at successive historical periods, e.g. from Greek and Latin in ancient times, from Slavic in Byzantine times, from Romance languages during the Crusades, from Turkish in the Ottoman period, and, more recently, from West European languages. The borrowing material surveyed includes both words and affixes. A key innovative construct is introduced for the typology of loanwords by focusing on a significant group of items that must have been borrowed through the medium of conversational interaction. Such conversationally based loans, neologistically referred to as “ERIC” loans (for those “Essentially Rooted In Conversation”) are exemplified through the borrowing of various closed class items, including both grammatical forms like complementizers and pronouns and discourse markers, many of which come from Turkish. Particular attention is given as well to taboo words in the Balkans, to shared phraseology—including shared idioms and proverbs—to shared semantics (isosemy), to shared expressive forms involving reduplication and onomatopoeia. Finally, the lexical side of shared style and register is discussed.