8 June 2010 | An international consortium of language and technology experts, VAPA, has created iBalkans - a multimedia, multilingual travel phrasebook application for the Apple iPhone that allows easy intercultural communication between all the Balkan languages, including Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Macedonian, Romani, Romanian, Turkish, Serbian, and Slovene, as well as English and French.

Intended for both visitors to the Balkans and people living there who wish to communicate with their neighbours across language barriers, the iBalkans application is much more than a travel phrasebook and allows the user to enter into the very centre of the rich and varied Balkan cultures, according to its creators.

Geared to a variety of travellers, the application contains phrases divided into topics, such as: Food and Drink, Travel, Essentials, Conflict-What Conflict?, Romance, Life on the Street and the innovative Ten Phrases that Can Save Your Life. In them, there are phrases found in traditional phrasebooks, but also phrases that its creators saw as “unique to the Balkans and really represent the Balkan mentality,” such as “I am on your side,” “no thanks, I can't eat anymore,” “I could drink all night!,” or even “try to be on time next time.”

iBalkans is designed by language professionals and uses native speakers and guides for all languages, with all multimedia elements having been recorded in the Balkan countries. Languages in non-roman scripts (Bulgarian, Greek and Macedonian) also include a handy transliteration button, which allows the user to easily read the phrase.

Pricing and Availability: iBalkans can be downloaded directly at Apple's iTunes. The application comes in two versions: iBalkans Full which contains all phrases in all languages and iBalkans which contains all phrases in 3 languages (the user choose which languages to install but can always add more languages later ). iBalkans costs 4.99 US dollars (around 4.20 euro) (with three languages) and additional languages cost 2.99 US dollars (around 2.50 euro). iBalkans Full costs 14.99 US dollars (around 13 euro). There is also a free version, iBalkans Lite, with only a few sample phrases from each topic.

More information can be found here.