>>>Which is probably the reason why the plural is needed in English. We say just "Balkan" (definite article is implied) and nobody really means the mountain, and very few mean the peninsula in the geographic sense. I'd actually bet that many don't even know that there's a mountain of the name (even though that's 6th grade stuff) - it's commonly used in exactly that sense, the political region. The next sense is Balkan as a state of mind, but not what you'd think. It's not a synonym for a free-for-all neighborly fight, it denotes the patriarchal, parochial mind. The geographic meaning takes a far third place.
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>>When you say We say just "Balkan", who's the 'we' in that? I thought you were speaking English. ;)
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>Yes, on UT and at work. We are not "we wanna forget ourselves and blend in" type, we are "you wanted diversity, we came" type. Which means that at home (which is where I work :) we speak Serbian, with few slips into English, Hungarian or even German; girls may shoot a bit of Japanese at moments, and once in a week or two a bit of French may find its way into the conversation.
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>The Balkan is not spoken of in English, therefore of course.
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>(mmm... doesn't sound as snappy as "prema tome, dabome")

In your opinion. ;)