Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a
South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the
Balto-Slavic branch of the
Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speakers of
Kajkavian), mainly ethnic
Slovenes, the majority of whom live in
Slovenia, where it is the sole official language. As Slovenia is part of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
, Slovene is also one of its 24
official and working languages.
Standard Slovene
Standard Slovene is the national
standard language
A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includes ...
that was formed in the 18th and 19th century, based on
Upper
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
and
Lower Carniolan dialect groups, more specifically on language of
Ljubljana and its adjacent areas. The
Lower Carniolan dialect group was the dialect used in the 16th century by
Primož Trubar for his writings, while he also used Slovene as spoken in Ljubljana, since he lived in the city for more than 20 years. It was the speech of
Ljubljana that Trubar took as a foundation of what later became standard Slovene, with small addition of his native speech, that is
Lower Carniolan dialect Trubar's choice was later adopted also by other Protestant writers in the 16th century, and ultimately led to the formation of more standard language. The
Upper
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
dialect was also used by most authors during the language revival in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and was also the language spoken by
France Prešeren, who, like most of Slovene writers and poets, lived and worked in Ljubljana, where speech was growing closer to the Upper Carniolan dialect group.
Unstandardized dialects are more preserved in regions of the
Slovene Lands where compulsory schooling was in languages other than Standard Slovene, as was the case with the
Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, and the
Slovene minority in Italy. For example, the
Resian and
Torre (Ter) dialects in the Italian
Province of Udine
The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian dialect, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, borderi ...
differ most from other Slovene dialects.
The distinctive characteristics of Slovene are
dual grammatical number, two accentual norms (one characterized by
pitch accent), and abundant inflection (a trait shared with many Slavic languages). Although Slovene is basically an
SVO language, word order is very flexible, often adjusted for emphasis or stylistic reasons. Slovene has a
T–V distinction: second-person plural forms are used for individuals as a sign of respect.
Classification
Slovene is an
Indo-European language
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...
belonging to the Western subgroup of the
South Slavic branch of the
Slavic languages, together with
Serbo-Croatian. It is close to the
Chakavian and especially
Kajkavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian, but further from the
Shtokavian dialect
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...
, the basis for the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian standard languages.
[Greenberg, Marc L., ''A Short Reference Grammar of Slovene,'' (''LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics'' 30). Munich: LINCOM, 2008. ] Furthermore, Slovene shares certain linguistic characteristics with all
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
, including those of the Eastern subgroup, such as
Bulgarian.
Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation,
Kajkavian being the most
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
. Slovene has some commonalities with the
West Slavic languages.
History
Early history
Like all
Slavic languages, Slovene traces its roots to the same proto-Slavic group of languages that produced
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
. The earliest known examples of a distinct, written dialect connected to Slovene are from the ''
Freising manuscripts,'' known in Slovene as ''Brižinski spomeniki''. The consensus estimate of their date of origin is between 972 and 1039 (most likely before 1000). These religious writings are among the oldest surviving manuscripts in any Slavic language.
The ''Freising manuscripts'' are a record of a proto-Slovene that was spoken in a more scattered territory than modern Slovene, which included most of the present-day Austrian states of
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
and
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
, as well as
East Tyrol, the
Val Pusteria
The Puster Valley ( it, Val Pusteria ; german: Pustertal, ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The Sou ...
in
South Tyrol, and some areas of
Upper
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
and
Lower Austria.
By the 15th century, most of the northern areas were gradually
Germanized: the northern border of the Slovene-speaking territory stabilized on the line going from north of
Klagenfurt to south of
Villach and east of
Hermagor in Carinthia, while in Styria it was pretty much identical with the current Austrian-Slovenian border.
This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when a second process of Germanization took place, mostly in Carinthia. Between the 9th and 12th century, proto-Slovene spread into northern
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...
and in the areas around
Trieste.
During most of the Middle Ages, Slovene was a vernacular language of the peasantry, although it was also spoken in most of the towns on Slovenian territory, together with German or Italian. Although during this time, German emerged as the spoken language of the nobility, Slovene had some role in the courtly life of the Carinthian, Carniolan and Styrian nobility, as well. This is proved by the survival of certain ritual formulas in Slovene (such as the ritual installation of the Dukes of Carinthia). The words "Buge waz primi, gralva Venus!" ("God be With You, Queen Venus!"), with which
Bernhard von Spanheim greeted the poet
Ulrich von Liechtenstein, who was travelling around Europe in guise of Venus, upon his arrival in Carinthia in 1227 (or 1238), is another example of some level of Slovene knowledge among high nobility in the region.
The first printed Slovene words, ''stara pravda'' (meaning 'old justice' or 'old laws'), appeared in 1515 in
Vienna in a poem of the German mercenaries who suppressed the
Slovene peasant revolt: the term was presented as the peasants' motto and battle cry.
Standard Slovene emerged in the second half of the 16th century, thanks to the works of Slovene Lutheran authors, who were active during the
Protestant Reformation. The most prominent authors from this period are
Primož Trubar, who wrote the first books in Slovene;
Adam Bohorič
Adam Bohorič () ( – after 20 November 1598) was a Slovene Protestant preacher, teacher and author of the first grammar of Slovene.
Bohorič was born in the market town of Reichenburg in the Duchy of Styria (now Brestanica in Sl ...
, the author of the first Slovene grammar; and
Jurij Dalmatin, who translated the entire
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...
into Slovene.
From the high Middle Ages up to the dissolution of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
in 1918, in the territory of present-day Slovenia,
German was the language of the elite, and Slovene was the language of the common people. During this period, German had a strong influence on Slovene, and many
Germanisms are preserved in contemporary colloquial Slovene. Many Slovene
scientists before the 1920s also wrote in foreign languages, mostly German, which was the ''
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' of science throughout
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the ...
at the time.
Recent history
During the rise of
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...
in the 19th century, the cultural movements of
Illyrism and
Pan-Slavism brought words from
Serbo-Croatian, specifically Croatian dialects, and
Czech into standard Slovene, mostly to replace words previously borrowed from German. Most of these innovations have remained, although some were dropped in later development. In the second half of the 19th century, many nationalist authors made an abundant use of Serbo-Croatian words: among them were
Fran Levstik
Fran Levstik (28 September 1831 – 16 November 1887) was a Slovene writer, political activist, playwright and critic. He was one of the most prominent exponents of the Young Slovene political movement.
Life and work
Levstik was born in 183 ...
and
Josip Jurčič, who wrote the first novel in Slovene in 1866. This tendency was reversed in the
Fin de siècle period by the first generation of modernist Slovene authors (most notably the writer
Ivan Cankar), who resorted to a more "pure" and simple language without excessive Serbo-Croatian borrowings.
During the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
in the 1920s and 1930s, the influence of Serbo-Croatian increased again. This was opposed by the younger generations of Slovene authors and intellectuals; among the most fierce opponents of an excessive Serbo-Croatian influence on Slovene were the intellectuals associated with the leftist journal ''
Sodobnost'', as well as some younger Catholic activists and authors. After 1945, numerous Serbo-Croatian words that had been used in the previous decades were dropped. The result was that a Slovene text from the 1910s is frequently closer to modern Slovene than a text from the 1920s and 1930s.
Between 1920 and 1941, the official language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was defined as "Serbo-Croato-Slovene", which was in practice merely Serbo-Croatian. In Slovenia however, Slovene remained in use in education and administration. Many state institutions used only Serbo-Croatian, and a Slovene–Serbo-Croatian bilingualism was applied in many spheres of public life in Slovenia. For examples, at the post offices, railways and in administrative offices, Serbo-Croatian was used alongside Slovene. However, state employees were expected to be able to speak Slovene in Slovenia.
During the same time, western Slovenia (the
Slovenian Littoral
The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Ad ...
and the western districts of
Inner Carniola) was under Italian administration and submitted to a violent policy of
Fascist Italianization; the same policy was applied to Slovene speakers in
Venetian Slovenia,
Gorizia and
Trieste. Between 1923 and 1943, all public use of Slovene in these territories was strictly prohibited, and Slovene-language activists were persecuted by the state.
After the
Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, a less severe policy of
Germanization took place in the Slovene-speaking areas of southern
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
which remained under Austrian administration. After the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the Nazi Germany, German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Ger ...
of 1938, the use of Slovene was strictly forbidden in Carinthia, as well. This accelerated a process of
language shift in Carinthia, which continued throughout the second half of the 20th century: according to the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, around 21% of inhabitants of Carinthia spoke Slovene in their daily communication; by 1951, this figure dropped to less than 10%, and by 2001 to a mere 2.8%.
During
World War II, Slovenia was divided among the
Axis Powers of
Fascist Italy
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
,
Nazi Germany, and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
. Each of the occupying powers tried to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene.
Following World War II, Slovenia became part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Slovene was one of the official languages of the federation. In the territory of Slovenia, it was commonly used in almost all areas of public life. One important exception was the
Yugoslav army, where
Serbo-Croatian was used exclusively, even in Slovenia.
National independence has further fortified the language: since 1991, when Slovenia gained independence, Slovene has been used as an official language in all areas of public life. In 2004 it became one of the official languages of the European Union upon Slovenia's admission.
Joža Mahnič, a literary historian and president of the publishing house ''
Slovenska matica'', said in February 2008 that Slovene is a language rich enough to express everything, including the most sophisticated and specialised texts. In February 2010,
Janez Dular, a prominent Slovene linguist, commented that, although Slovene is not an endangered language, its scope has been shrinking, especially in science and higher education.
Geographic distribution
The language is spoken by about 2.5 million people, mainly in Slovenia, but also by
Slovene national minorities in
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
(man), it, Friulana (woman), it, Giuliano (man), it, Giuliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_t ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
(around 90,000 in
Venetian Slovenia,
Resia Valley,
Canale Valley,
Province of Trieste and in those municipalities of the
Province of Gorizia bordering with Slovenia), in southern
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
, some parts of
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
(25,000) and in west part Croatian
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...
bordering with Slovenia. It is also spoken in
Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
and
Zagreb (11,800-13,100), in southwestern
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
(3-5,000), in
Serbia (5,000), and by the Slovene diaspora throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
and the rest of the world (around 300,000), particularly in the
United States (most notably
Ohio, home to an estimated 3,400 speakers),
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the L ...
and
South Africa.
Dialects
Slovene is sometimes characterized as the most diverse Slavic language in terms of
dialects,
with different degrees of mutual intelligibility.
Accounts of the number of dialects range from as few as seven dialects, often considered dialect groups or dialect bases that are further subdivided into as many as 50 dialects. Other sources characterize the number of dialects as nine or eight. The Slovene proverb "Every village has its own voice" (''Vsaka vas ima svoj glas'') depicts the differences in dialects. Although pronunciation differs greatly from area to area, those differences do not pose major obstacles to understanding. The standard language is mainly used in public presentations or on formal occasions.
The
Prekmurje dialect used to have a written norm of its own at one point.
The
Resian dialects have an independent written norm that is used by their regional state institutions. Speakers of those two dialects have considerable difficulties with being understood by speakers of other varieties of Slovene, needing
code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingual ...
to Standard Slovene. Other dialects are mutually intelligible when speakers avoid the excessive usage of regionalisms.
There is a debate on whether the
Kajkavian dialect spoken in neighbouring
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
is a dialect of Slovene, as it shares more features to the latter than it does to
standard Croatian
Croatian (; ' ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language used by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina, and other neighboring countries. It is the official an ...
, though some treat it as its own separate language.
Regionalisms are mostly limited to culinary and agricultural expressions, although there are many exceptions. Some
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
have become so deeply rooted in the local language that people have considerable difficulties in finding a standard expression for the dialect term (for instance, ''kovter'' meaning
blanket is ''prešita odeja'' in Standard Slovene, but the latter term is very rarely used in speech, being considered inappropriate for non-literary registers). Southwestern dialects incorporate a great deal of
calques and
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
from Italian, whereas eastern and northwestern dialects are replete with lexemes of German origin. Usage of such words hinders intelligibility between dialects and is greatly discouraged in formal situations.
Phonology
Slovene has a
phoneme set consisting of 21
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
s and 8
vowels.
Consonants
Slovene has 21 distinctive consonant phonemes.
All
voiced obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
s are devoiced at the end of words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, voicing distinction is neutralized and all consonants assimilate the voicing of the rightmost segment, i.e. the final consonant in the cluster. In this context, , and may occur as voiced allophones of , and , respectively (e.g. ''vŕh drevésa'' ).
has several
allophones
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
depending on context.
* Before a vowel, pronunciation is labiodental,
(also described as ).
* After a vowel, pronunciation is bilabial and forms a diphthong.
* At the beginning of a syllable, before a consonant (for example in ''vsi'' "all"), the pronunciation varies more widely by speaker and area. Many speakers convert into a full vowel in this position.
For those speakers who retain a consonantal pronunciation, it is pronounced before a voiced consonant and before a voiceless consonant.
Thus, ''vsi'' may be pronounced as disyllabic or monosyllabic .
The sequences , and occur only before a vowel. Before a consonant or word-finally, they are reduced to , and respectively. This is reflected in the spelling in the case of , but not for and .
Under certain (somewhat unpredictable) circumstances, at the end of a syllable may become , merging with the allophone of in that position.
Vowels
Slovene has an eight-vowel (or, according to Peter Jurgec, nine-vowel)
[. He transcribes it as , but the vowel chart on page 2 shows that the phonetically correct symbol is .] system, in comparison to the five-vowel system of Serbo-Croatian.
Grammar
Nouns
Slovene nouns retain six of the seven Slavic noun cases:
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
,
accusative,
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
,
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
,
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
and
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...
. There is no distinct
vocative; the nominative is used in that role. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns have three numbers: singular, dual and plural.
Nouns in Slovene are either masculine, feminine or neuter gender. In addition, there is a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns. This is only relevant for masculine nouns and only in the singular, at odds with some other Slavic languages, e.g. Russian, for which it is also relevant in the plural for all genders. Animate nouns have an accusative singular form that is identical to the genitive, while for inanimate nouns the accusative singular is the same as the nominative. Animacy is based mostly on semantics and is less rigid than gender. Generally speaking a noun is animate if it refers to something that is generally thought to have free will or the ability to move of its own accord. This includes all nouns for people and animals. All other nouns are inanimate, including plants and other non-moving life forms, and also groups of people or animals. However, there are some nouns for inanimate objects that are generally animate, which mostly include inanimate objects that are named after people or animals. This includes:
* Dead people or animals
* Makes of cars
* Certain diseases (named after animals)
* Certain devices (named after animals or people)
* Works of art (named after their creator)
* Chess pieces and playing cards (named for the people they represent)
* Wines and mushrooms (named as
demonym
A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...
s)
Definiteness
There are no
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
or
indefinite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ...
s as in English (''a'', ''an'', ''the'') or
German (''der'', ''die'', ''das'', ''ein'', ''eine''). A whole verb or a noun is described without articles and the
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
is found from the word's termination. It is enough to say ''barka'' ('a' or 'the barge'), ''Noetova barka'' ('Noah's ark'). The gender is known in this case to be feminine. In
declensions, endings are normally changed; see below. If one should like to somehow distinguish between definiteness or indefiniteness of a noun, one would say ''(prav/natanko/ravno) tista barka'' ('that/precise/exact barge') for 'the barge' and ''neka/ena barka'' ('some/a barge') for 'a barge'.
Definiteness of a noun phrase can also be discernible through the ending of the accompanying adjective. One should say ''rdeči šotor'' ('
xactly that
Xactly Corporation is a pure-play, SaaS company that provides cloud-based enterprise software and services. They offer tools to allow for sales performance management, sales effectiveness, sales compensation, and employee engagement.
Xactly Corpor ...
red tent') or ''rdeč šotor'' ('
red tent'). This difference is observable only for masculine nouns in nominative or accusative case. Because of the lack of article in Slovene and audibly insignificant difference between the masculine adjective forms, most dialects do not distinguish between definite and indefinite variants of the adjective, leading to
hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mi ...
when speakers try to use Standard Slovene.
T–V distinction
Slovene, like most other European languages, has a
T–V distinction, or two forms of 'you' for formal and informal situations. Although informal address using the 2nd person singular ''ti'' form (known as ''tikanje'') is officially limited to friends and family, talk among children, and addressing animals, it is increasingly used among the middle generation to signal a relaxed attitude or lifestyle instead of its polite or formal counterpart using the 2nd person plural ''vi'' form (known as ''vikanje'').
An additional nonstandard but widespread use of a singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as ''polvikanje'') signals a somewhat more friendly and less formal attitude while maintaining politeness:
* ''Vi ga niste videli.'' ('You did not see him': both the auxiliary verb ''niste'' and the participle ''videli'' are plural masculine. Standard usage.)
* ''Vi ga niste videl/videla.'' ('You did not see him': the auxiliary verb ''niste'' is plural but the participle ''videl/videla'' is singular masculine/feminine. Nonstandard usage.)
The use of nonstandard forms (''polvikanje'') might be frowned upon by many people and would not likely be used in a formal setting.
The use of the 3rd person plural ''oni'' ('they') form (known as ''onikanje'' in both direct address and indirect reference; this is similar to using ''Sie'' in German) as an ultra-polite form is now archaic or dialectal. It is associated with servant-master relationships in older literature, the child-parent relationship in certain conservative rural communities, and parishioner-priest relationships.
Vocabulary
Numbers
Foreign words
Foreign words used in Slovene are of various types depending on the assimilation they have undergone. The types are:
* ''sposojenka'' (loanword)fully assimilated; e.g. ''pica'' ('pizza').
* ''tujka'' (foreign word)partly assimilated, either in writing and syntax or in pronunciation; e.g. ''jazz'', ''wiki''.
* ''polcitatna beseda ali besedna zveza'' (half-quoted word or phrase) – partly assimilated, either in writing and syntax or in pronunciation; e.g. ''Shakespeare'', but ''Shakespearja'' in genitive case.
* ''citatna beseda ali besedna zveza'' (quoted word or phrase)kept as in original, although pronunciation may be altered to fit into speech flow; e.g. ''first lady'' in all cases.
The loanwords are mostly from
German and
Italian, while the more recently borrowed and less assimilated words are typically from
English.
Writing system
This alphabet () was derived in the mid-1840s from
the system created by the
Croatian
Croatian may refer to:
* Croatia
*Croatian language
*Croatian people
*Croatians (demonym)
See also
*
*
* Croatan (disambiguation)
* Croatia (disambiguation)
* Croatoan (disambiguation)
* Hrvatski (disambiguation)
* Hrvatsko (disambiguation)
* S ...
linguist
Ljudevit Gaj
Ljudevit Gaj (; born Ludwig Gay; hu, Gáj Lajos; 8 August 1809 – 20 April 1872) was a Croatian Linguistics, linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the pan-Slavist Illyrian movement.
Biography
Origi ...
. Intended for the
Serbo-Croatian language (in all its varieties), it was patterned on the
Czech alphabet of the 1830s. Before that was, for example, written as
, or
; as , , or ; sometimes as as a relic from the now modern Russian
yery character , which is itself usually transliterated as ; as ; as ; as ; as , or .
The standard Slovene orthography, used in almost all situations, uses only the letters of the
ISO basic Latin alphabet plus , , and . The letters , , , and are not included:
The orthography thus underdifferentiates several phonemic distinctions:
* Stress, vowel length and tone are not distinguished, except with optional diacritics when it is necessary to distinguish between similar words with a different meaning.
* The two distinct mid-vowels are also not distinguished, both written as simply and .
* The schwa is also written as . However, the combination is written as simply between consonants and is thus distinguishable.
* Vocalised ''l'' is written as , but cannot be predictably distinguished from in that position.
In the tonemic varieties of Slovene, the ambiguity is even worse: ''e'' in a final syllable can stand for any of (although is rare).
The reader is expected to gather the interpretation of the word from the context, as in these examples:
* ''gol'':
** gȍł "naked"
** gọ̑l "goal"
* ''jesen'':
** jésen "ash tree"
** jesẹ̑n "autumn"
* ''kot''
** kọ́t "angle"
** kot "as"
* ''med''
** med "between"
** mẹ̑d "honey"
* ''pol''
** pọ̑l "pole"
** pọ̑ł "half"
** pól "half an hour before (the hour)"
* ''precej''
** prȅcej "at once" (archaic)
** precẹ̑j or precȅj "a great deal (of)"
Diacritics
To compensate for the shortcomings of the standard orthography, Slovene also uses standardized
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s or accent marks to denote
stress,
vowel length and
pitch accent, much like the closely related
Serbo-Croatian. However, as in Serbo-Croatian, use of such accent marks is restricted to dictionaries, language textbooks and linguistic publications. In normal writing, the diacritics are almost never used, except in a few minimal pairs where real ambiguity could arise.
Two different and mutually incompatible systems of diacritics are used. The first is the simpler non-tonemic system, which can be applied to all Slovene dialects. It is more widely used and is the standard representation in dictionaries such as SSKJ. The tonemic system also includes tone as part of the representation. However, neither system reliably distinguishes schwa from the front mid-vowels, nor vocalised l from regular l . Some sources write these as ''ə'' and ''ł'', respectively, but this is not as common.
Non-tonemic diacritics
In the non-tonemic system, the distinction between the two mid-vowels is indicated, as well as the placement of stress and length of vowels:
* Long stressed vowels are notated with an acute diacritic: ''á é í ó ú ŕ'' (IPA: ).
* However, the rarer long stressed low-mid vowels and are notated with a circumflex: ''ê ô''.
* Short stressed vowels are notated with a grave: ''à è ì ò ù'' (IPA: ). Some systems may also include ''ə̀'' for .
Tonemic diacritics
The tonemic system uses the diacritics somewhat differently from the non-tonemic system. The high-mid vowels and are written ''ẹ ọ'' with a subscript dot, while the low-mid vowels and are written as plain ''e o''.
Pitch accent and length is indicated by four diacritical marks:
* The
acute ( ´ ) indicates long and low pitch: ''á é ẹ́ í ó ọ́ ú ŕ'' (IPA: ).
* The
inverted breve ( ̑ ) indicates long and high pitch: ''ȃ ȇ ẹ̑ ȋ ȏ ọ̑ ȗ ȓ'' (IPA: ).
* The
grave ( ` ) indicates short and low pitch. This occurs only on ''è'' (IPA: ), optionally written as ''ə̀''.
* The
double grave
The double grave accent ( ̏ ) is a diacritic used in scholarly discussions of the Serbo-Croatian and sometimes Slovene languages. It is also used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
In Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian, double grave accent is ...
( ̏ ) indicates short and high pitch: ''ȁ ȅ ȉ ȍ ȕ'' (IPA: ). ''ȅ'' is also used for , optionally written as ''ə̏''.
The schwa vowel is written ambiguously as ''e'', but its accentuation will sometimes distinguish it: a long vowel mark can never appear on a schwa, while a grave accent can appear only on a schwa. Thus, only ''ȅ'' and unstressed ''e'' are truly ambiguous.
Regulation
Standard Slovene spelling and grammar are defined by the Orthographic Committee and the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovene Language, which are both part of the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (''Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti'', SAZU). The newest reference book of standard Slovene spelling (and to some extent also grammar) is the ''Slovenski pravopis'' (''SP2001''; Slovene Normative Guide). The latest printed edition was published in 2001 (reprinted in 2003 with some corrections) and contains more than 130,000 dictionary entries. In 2003, an electronic version was published.
The official dictionary of modern Slovene, which was also prepared by SAZU, is ''Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika'' (''SSKJ''; Standard Slovene Dictionary). It was published in five volumes by Državna Založba Slovenije between 1970 and 1991 and contains more than 100,000 entries and subentries with accentuation, part-of-speech labels, common collocations, and various qualifiers. In the 1990s, an electronic version of the dictionary was published and is available online.
The SAZU considers SP2001 to be the normative source on Slovene. When dictionary entries in SP2001 and SSKJ differ, the SP2001 entry takes precedence. SP2001 is called a Spelling Dictionary by the European Network of e-Lexicography.
Sample
Below is the preamble of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Slovene.
''Ker'' priznanje prirojenega dostojanstva ter enakih in neodtujljivih pravic vseh članov človeške družine pomeni temelj svobode, pravičnosti in miru v svetu,
''ker'' sta zanikanje in teptanje človekovih pravic pripeljala do barbarskih dejanj, ki so pretresla zavest človeštva, in ker je bila za najvišjo spoznana težnja človeštva, da bi nastopil svet, v katerem bodo ljudje uživali svobodo govora in prepričanja ter svobodo živeti brez strahu in pomanjkanja,
''ker'' je nujno potrebno človekove pravice zavarovati z vladavino prava, da se človek v skrajni sili ne bi bil prisiljen zateči k uporu zoper tiranijo in zatiranje,
''ker'' je nujno potrebno spodbujati razvoj prijateljskih odnosov med narodi,
''ker'' so ljudstva Organizacije združenih narodov v Ustanovni listini potrdila svojo vero v temeljne človekove pravice, dostojanstvo in vrednost človeškega bitja ter v enake pravice moških in žensk ter se odločila, da bodo spodbujala družbeni napredek in boljše življenjske razmere v večji svobodi,
''ker'' so se države članice zavezale, da bodo, v sodelovanju z Organizacijo združenih narodov, zagotavljale splošno spoštovanje in upoštevanje človekovih pravic in temeljnih svoboščin,
''ker'' je skupno razumevanje pravic in svoboščin največjega pomena za celovito uresničitev te zaveze,
''Generalna skupščina''
''razglaša'' Splošno deklaracijo človekovih pravic kot skupen ideal vseh ljudstev in vseh narodov z namenom, da bi vsi posamezniki in vsi organi družbe, vselej ob upoštevanju te deklaracije, z vzgojo in izobraževanjem spodbujali spoštovanje pravic in svoboščin ter s postopnimi državnimi in mednarodnimi ukrepi zagotovili njihovo splošno in dejansko priznanje in upoštevanje, tako med ljudstvi držav članic samih kakor tudi med ljudstvi ozemelj pod njihovo upravo.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign LanguageSlovenian Phonology
Grammars
Slovene Grammar
Corpora
*
Slovenian National Corpus Slovenian National Corpus FidaPLUS is the 621 million words (tokens) corpus of the Slovenian language, gathered from selected texts written in Slovenian of different genres and styles, mainly from books and newspapers.
The FidaPLUS database is an ...
600 M words corpus of Slovenian FidaPLUS
200 M words corpus of Slovenian Nova beseda
Dictionaries
*
*
Comprehensive list of the Slovene dictionaries*
Spletni Slovar (Multilingual Dictionary)
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