Slovene ( or ) or Slovenian ( ; ) is a
South Slavic language of the
Balto-Slavic branch of the
Indo-European language family. Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the inhabitants of
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
, the majority of them ethnic
Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...
. As Slovenia is part of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, Slovene is also one of its 24
official and working languages. Its grammar is highly
fusional, and it has a
dual grammatical number, an archaic feature shared with some other Indo-European languages. Two accentual norms (one characterized by
pitch accent) are used. Its flexible
word order is often adjusted for emphasis or stylistic reasons, although basically it is an
SVO language. It has a
T–V distinction: the use of the V-form demonstrates a respectful attitude towards superiors and the elderly, while it can be sidestepped through the passive form.
Standard Slovene
Standard Slovene is the national
standard language that was formed in the 18th and 19th centuries, based on the
Upper and
Lower Carniolan dialect groups, more specifically on the language of
Ljubljana and 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, the Lower Carniolan dialect.
Trubar's choice was also later adopted by other
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
writers in the 16th century, and ultimately led to the formation of a more standard language. The Upper 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 Slovene writers and poets, lived and worked in Ljubljana, where the speech was growing closer to the Upper Carniolan dialect group.
Unstandardized dialects are better 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
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, and the
Slovene minority in Italy. For example, the
Resian and
Torre (Ter) dialects in the Italian
Province of Udine differ most from other Slovene dialects.
Classification
Slovene is an
Indo-European language belonging to the Western subgroup of the
South Slavic branch of the
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
, together with
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
. It is close to the
Chakavian and especially
Kajkavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian, but genealogically more distant from the
Shtokavian dialect, the basis for the
Bosnian,
Croatian,
Montenegrin, and
Serbian standard languages. Slovene in general, and
Prekmurje Slovene in particular, shares the highest level of
mutual intelligibility with transitional Kajkavian dialects of
Hrvatsko Zagorje and
Međimurje.
[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, including those of the Eastern subgroup, namely
Bulgarian,
Macedonian, and
Torlakian dialects.
Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation,
Kajkavian being firmly the most mutually intelligible. Slovene has some commonalities with the
West Slavic languages that are not found in other South Slavic languages.
History
Early history
Like all
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
, Slovene traces its roots to the same proto-Slavic group of languages that produced
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
. The earliest known examples of a distinct, written dialect connected to Slovene are from the ''
Freising manuscripts'', known in Slovene as . The consensus estimate of their date of origin is between 972 and 1039 CE (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 and
Styria, as well as
East Tyrol, the
Val Pusteria in
South Tyrol, and some areas of
Upper and
Lower Austria
Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...
.
Between the 9th and 12th century, proto-Slovene spread into northern
Istria and in the areas around
Trieste. 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 more or less 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.
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 ('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, (meaning 'old justice' or 'old laws'), appeared in 1515 in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
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, the author of the first Slovene grammar; and
Jurij Dalmatin, who translated the entire
Bible into Slovene.
From the high Middle Ages up to the dissolution of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire 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; many
Germanisms are preserved in contemporary colloquial Slovene. Many Slovene
scientist
A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
s 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, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
'' of science throughout
Central Europe
Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
at the time.
Recent history
During the rise of
Romantic nationalism in the 19th century, the cultural movements of
Illyrism and
Pan-Slavism brought words from
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
, 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 vocabulary but adapted it to Slovene orthography: among them were
Fran Levstik 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 purist and locally derived language without excessive Serbo-Croatian borrowings.
During the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...
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 fiercest opponents of an excessive Serbo-Croatian influence on Slovene were the intellectuals associated with the leftist journal ''
Sodobnost'', as well as some younger
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
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 example, at post offices, on 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 and the western districts of
Inner Carniola) was under Italian administration and subjected 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 which remained under Austrian administration. After the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
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 had dropped to less than 10%, and by 2001 to a mere 2.8%.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Slovenia was divided among the
Axis Powers of
Fascist Italy,
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, and
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
. Each of the occupying powers tried to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene.
Following World War II, Slovenia became part of the
Federal Yugoslavia. While there was no official language at federal level, Serbo-Croatian dominated as prestige dialect in all aspects whereas Slovene remained confined to now
federal Slovenia where it was made an official language recognized once again. 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 the admission of Slovenia.
Nonetheless, the post-breakup influence of Serbo-Croatian on Slovene continued to a lesser extent, most prominently in
slang in
colloquial language.
Joža Mahnič, a literary historian and president of the publishing house , 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,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
(around 90,000 in
Venetian Slovenia,
Resia Valley,
Canale Valley,
Province of Trieste, and in those municipalities of the
Province of Gorizia bordering Slovenia), in southern
Carinthia, some parts of
Styria in
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
(25,000), and in the western part of Croatian
Istria bordering Slovenia. It is also spoken in
Rijeka
Rijeka (;
Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...
and
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
(11,800-13,100), in southwestern
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
(3–5,000), in
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
(5,000), and by the Slovene diaspora throughout
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and the rest of the world (around 300,000), particularly in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
(most notably
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, home to an estimated 3,400 speakers),
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
.
Dialects

Slovene is sometimes characterized as the most diverse Slavic language in terms of
its 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" () depicts the differences in dialects.
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 to
code-switch to Standard Slovene. Other dialects are mutually intelligible when speakers avoid the excessive usage of regionalisms.
Regionalisms are mostly limited to culinary and agricultural expressions, although there are many exceptions. Some
loanwords 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, meaning
a type of custard cake is in Standard Slovene, but the latter term is very rarely used in speech, being considered inappropriate for non-literary registers). Southwestern dialects incorporate many
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
s and
loanwords 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, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s and 8
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s.
Consonants
Slovene has 21 distinctive consonant phonemes.
All voiced
obstruents are devoiced at the end of words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a
voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, the
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., ).
has several
allophones 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 (e.g., in "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, 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,
accusative,
genitive,
dative,
locative, and
instrumental. 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, ...
s)
Definiteness
There are no
definite or
indefinite article
In grammar, 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 ...
s as in English (''the'', ''a'', ''an'') or
German (). A noun is described without articles; the
grammatical gender is shown by the ending of the word. It is enough to say ('a' or 'the barge'), ('Noah's ark'). The gender is known in this case to be feminine. In
declensions, endings are normally changed; see below. If one would like to somehow distinguish between the definiteness or indefiniteness of a noun, one would say ('that/precise/exact barge') for 'the barge' and ('some/a barge') for 'a barge'.
The definiteness of a noun phrase can also be discerned through the ending of the accompanying adjective. One should say ('
xactly thatred tent') or ('
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 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 form (known as ) 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 form (known as ).
An additional nonstandard but widespread use of a singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as ) signals a somewhat more friendly and less formal attitude while maintaining politeness:
* ('You did not see him': both the auxiliary verb and the participle are plural masculine. Standard usage.)
* ('You did not see him': the auxiliary verb is plural but the participle is singular masculine/feminine. Nonstandard usage.)
The use of nonstandard forms () might be frowned upon by many people and would not likely be used in a formal setting.
The use of the 3rd person plural ('they') form (known as in both direct address and indirect reference; this is similar to using 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:
* (loanword)fully assimilated; e.g., ('pizza').
* (foreign word)partly assimilated, either in writing and syntax or in pronunciation; e.g., ''jazz'', ''wiki''.
* (half-quoted word or phrase) – partly assimilated, either in writing and syntax or in pronunciation; e.g., ''Shakespeare'', but in genitive case.
* (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 linguist
Ljudevit Gaj. Intended for the
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
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 ; as ; as ; as , , or .
The standard Slovene orthography, employed 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.
* Vocalized ''l'' is written also as , but cannot be predictably distinguished from in that position.
In the tonemic varieties of Slovene, the ambiguity is even greater: in a final syllable can stand for any of (although is rare; and Slovene, except in some dialects, does not distinguished tonemic accentuation).
The reader is expected to gather the interpretation of the word from the context, as in these examples:
* :
** gȍł "naked"
** gọ̑l "goal"
* :
** jésen "ash tree"
** jesẹ̑n "autumn"
*
** kọ́t "angle"
** kot "as"
*
** med "between"
** mẹ̑d "honey"
*
** pọ̑l "pole"
** pọ̑ł "half"
*
** 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
diacritics or accent marks to denote
stress,
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many ...
, and
pitch accent, much like the closely related
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
. 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, such as
Maks Pleteršnik's 1894/95 dictionary, 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 the length of vowels:
* Long stressed vowels are notated with an acute diacritic: (IPA: ).
* However, the rarer long stressed low-mid vowels and are notated with a circumflex: .
* Short stressed vowels are notated with a grave: (IPA: ). Some systems may also include for .
Tonemic diacritics
The tonemic system uses the diacritics somewhat differently from the non-tonemic system. The high-mid vowels and are written with a subscript dot, while the low-mid vowels and are written as plain .
Pitch accent and vowel length is indicated by four diacritical marks:
* The
acute ( ´ ) indicates long and low pitch: (IPA: ).
* The
inverted breve ( ̑ ) indicates long and high pitch: (IPA: ).
* The
grave
A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...
( ` ) indicates short and low pitch. This occurs only on (IPA: ), optionally written as .
* The
double grave ( ̏ ) indicates short and high pitch: (IPA: ). is also used for , optionally written as .
The schwa vowel is written ambiguously as , 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 and unstressed 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 (, SAZU). The newest reference book of standard Slovene spelling (and to some extent also grammar) is the (''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 (''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 text
Article 1 of the ''
Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Slovene.
:
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:
:''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''
References
Bibliography
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External links
Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign LanguageSlovenian Phonology
Grammars
Slovene Grammar
Corpora
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Slovenian National Corpus 600 M words corpus of Slovenian FidaPLUS
200 M words corpus of Slovenian Nova beseda
Dictionaries
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Comprehensive list of the Slovene dictionaries
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Spletni Slovar (Multilingual Dictionary)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slovene language
South Slavic languages
Languages of Slovenia
Languages of Austria
Languages of Serbia
Languages of Hungary
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Slavic languages written in Latin script