Slovenian language
Classification and spoken areas
Slovenian, or Slovene, language (= slovenski) jezik (Slovenian (slovenščina)) is the westernmost language in the South Slav branch of the Slavic languages group.
| Language codes | ||
|---|---|---|
| SIL Code, SLV |
ISO 639-1, sl |
ISO 639-2, slv |
| Preferred Character encodings / Writing codes | ||
| UTF-8 | ISO 8859-2 (Latin-2) |
Unicode |
| Letters Statistics | # of letters | 25 | # of vowels | 5 in writing, 8 in speech | # of consonants | 20 | # of grammatical numbers | 3 | # of cases | 6 | # of noun classes | 3+plural form |
The language is spoken by about 2.2 million people, the Slovenians living mostly in Central Europe in their native independent land Slovenia (1,727,360), plus the Slovenians in Venetian Slovenia (Beneška Slovenija) in Italy (100,000), in Austrian Carinthia (avstrijska Koroška) in Austria (50,000), in Croatian Istria (hrvaška Istra) in Croatia (25,000), in some southern parts of Hungary (6,000) and the Slovenians dispersed across Europe and all over the world (specially German Slovenians, American Slovenians, or even Kansas' Slovenians, Canadian Slovenians, Argentinian Slovenians, Australian Slovenians, South African Slovenians) (300,000). It is one of the rare Slavic languages that have preserved the dual grammatical number (like the Upper and Lower Sorbian language) and it has a very difficult noun case system.
- English philologist David Crystal said in an interview in the summer of 2003 for the newspaper Delo the following about Slovenian: No, Slovenian is not condemned to death. At least not in the foreseeable future. The number of speakers, 2 million, is big. Welsh has merely 500,000 speakers. Statistically, spoken Slovenian with 2 million speakers comes into the upper 10 % of the world's languages. Most languages of the world have very few speakers. Two million is a nice number: magnificent, brilliant. One probably would think this number is not much. But from the point of view of the whole world, this number has its weight. On the other hand, a language is never self-sufficient. It can disappear even in just one generation ...
The English name of the language
There has been a controversy as per the use of the correct English adjective out of Slovenia (and hence that of Slovenes). Slovene on the whole seems to be the preferred British, and Slovenian the American term. While in the past, these two had distinct meanings, they are nowadays used interchangeably without regard to their former usage.
The scientific study of Slovene language is known as "slovenistika". A scientist performing such a study is named a "slovenist".
Origin of the language and writing, borrowings, orthography, modern writing, computer writing
The earliest manuscripts written in Slovene are the Brižinski spomeniki (Freising manuscripts or Freising monuments, German Freisinger Denkmäler) found in the parchment manuscript miscellany, which in 1803 came from the Bavarian city of Freising (translated to Slovene in 1854 by Slovenian Slavist and grammarian Anton Janežič as Brizno, Brižnik or later adopted Brižinje, Brižine or Brižinj), where there was once a diocese, to the State Library in Munich. In this manuscript with a liturgic - homiletic content, three Slovene records were found 1807. This miscellany was probably an episcopal manual (pontificals) and Brižinski spomeniki in it were created between 972 and 1093, but most probably before 1000. The main support for this dating is the writing which was used in the centuries after Charlemagne and is named Caroline minuscule or Carolingian minuscule. ([1] [1] [1]).
This language was for a very long time a secondary language, the language of the masses in Slovenia during the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1918, when the German language had primacy and for a short period during the World War II, when Slovenia was divided between the Fascist Italian and the Nazi German hegemony. Because of a strong germanization, the Slovenian language retains a lot of Germanisms, which are preserved in a special way for example: German das Polster (pillow (blazina)) in Slovenian colloquial language is spoken poušter and German der Schraubenzieher (screwdriver (izvijač)) in technical colloquial jargon is šrauf'ncigr or šrauf'nciger.
Slovenian uses a modified Latin alphabet and its modern alphabet consists of 25 unique small and unique 25 capital letters and thus one-letter characters:
- a, b, c, č, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, v, z, ž,
- A, B, C, Č, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, Š, T, U, V, Z, Ž.
In the old alphabet used by most distinguished writers, "bohoričica", developed by Adam Bohorič, the characters č, š and ž would be spelt as zh, ∫h and sh respectively, whereas c, s and z would be spelt as z, ∫ and s. To remedy this, so that each vocal sound would have a written equivalent, Jernej Kopitar urged development of new alphabets.
In 1825, Franc Serafin Metelko proposed his version of the Slovenian alphabet, called "metelčica". However, it was banned in 1833 in favour of the bohoričica after the so-called Suit of the Letters (Črkarska pravda) (1830 - 1833), won by France Prešeren and Matija Čop. Another alphabet, "dajnčica", was developed by Peter Dajnko in 1824, which did not catch on as much as metelčica; it was banned in 1838. The reason for them being banned is because they mix Latin and Cyrillic characters, which was seen as a bad way to handle missing characters.
The gajica was adopted afterwards, however it still does not feature all characters the language has. In speech, there are 8 distinct vowels (a, wide e, narrow e, i, wide o, narrow o, u, schwa (e)), whereas in writing, there are only 5. Also, many consonants are pronounced differently depending on their position in between other characters (thus, the letter v has 3 different pronunciations), when there is only one written character.
There are 5 letters for vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 20 for consonants. The Western Q, W, X, Y are excluded from the pure language, as are some Southern Slavic characters, Ć, DŽ, Đ, LJ, NJ, but in encyclopedia's and dictionary's listings they are used, because foreign Western proper nouns or toponyms are not translated in full, as they are in some other Slavic languages, such as partly in Russian or entirely in Serbian. Such an encyclopedic listing would have this modified Latin alphabet:
- a, b, c, č, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, š, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, ž.
In the original ASCII frame of 1 to 126 characters we can find these examples of writing Slovenian text:
- a, b, c, *c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, *s, t, u, v, z, *z
- a, b, c, "c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, "s, t, u, v, z, "z
- a, b, c, c(, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, s(, t, u, v, z, z(
- a, b, c, c^, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, s^, t, u, v, z, z^
Many well known global placenames have their own special Slovenian names:
Countries (države)
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Cities (mesta)
|
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Oceans (oceani) Seas (morja) Lakes (jezera) Rivers (reke)
| ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Dual (Semi) |
| I will see | We (all) will see | We (both) will see |
| You will see | You (all) will see | You (both) will see |
| He will see/She will see | They (all) will see | They (both) will see |
into the Slovenian table:
| Singular +M/F gender | Plural +M/F gender | Dual +M/F gender |
| Jaz bom videl/Jaz bom videla | Mi bomo videli/Me bomo videle | Midva bova videla/Midve bova videli |
| Ti boš videl/Ti boš videla | Vi boste videli/Ve boste videle | Vidva bosta videla/Vidve bosta videli |
| On bo videl/Ona bo videla | Oni bodo videli/One bodo videle | Ona (or onadva) bosta bosta videla/Oni (or onidve) bosta videli |
Not only does the language have singular and plural but also dual, which is rendered in English using the word both.
Dual is a feature of the Old Slavic language and from the Old Slavic language the dual has been transmitted to Slovenian. It is a number like singular and plural but it is only used for two subjects and objects. We have:
- Ona sta (Both of them are -- two objects or subjects) [masculine gender]
- Oni sta (Both of them are -- two objects or subjects) [feminine gender]
- Oni so (All of them are -- more than two objects or subjects) [masculine gender]
- One so (All of them are -- more than two objects or subjects) [feminine gender]
Verbal genera (Glagolnik)
Noun (Samostalnik)
The Noun can serve in terms of syntax as the subject or the object of a sentence. In Slovene, this is shown by cases. There are 6 cases in Slovene:
- the Nominative case (imenovalnik)
- the Genitive case (rodilnik)
- the Dative case (dajalnik)
- the Accusative case (tožilnik)
- the Locative case (mestnik)
- the Instrumental case (orodnik)
There are 11 distinct declensions in Slovene. These are the following, with their model noun inflected. Please note that there are many exceptions for each of the declensions.
In the following tables, B shall mean "Base", E shall mean "Ending".
The First Feminine Declension (prva ženska sklanjatev) (model is lipa, lime (or linden) tree)
| CASE | Singular | Dual | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | E | B | E | B | E | |
| 1 | lip | a | lip | i | lip | e |
| 2 | lip | e | lip | - | lip | - |
| 3 | lip | i | lip | ama | lip | am | 4 | lip | o | lip | i | lip | e | 5 (pri/o) | lip | i | lip | ah | lip | ah | 6 (z) | lip | o | lip | ama | lip | ami |
The notable exceptions to this model are nouns ending in -ev instead of -a in nominative singular (breskev (peach), lestev (ladder), žetev (harvest)), and the nouns gospa (lady, madam), hči (daughter) and mati (mother).
Some nouns, in addition to those ending in -ev, change their base in the genitive of dual and plural. Namely, the schwa (-e-) (or -i- in front of -j-) is inserted. For example: vožnja (fare) - voženj, igra (game) - iger, ladja (ship) - ladij.
The Second Feminine Declension (druga ženska sklanjatev) (model is perut, wing (of a bird))
The Third Feminine Declension (četrta ženska sklanjatev) (model is mami, mummy (an alias for 'mother'))
The Fourth Feminine Declension (tretja ženska sklanjatev) (model is dežurna, a person on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives))
The First Masculine Declension (prva moška sklanjatev) (model is korak, step)
The Second Masculine Declension (druga moška sklanjatev) (model is vojvoda, duke)
The Third Masculine Declension (tretja moška sklanjatev) (model is H2O, or any other acronym and symbol)
The Fourth Masculine Declension (četrta moška sklanjatev) (model is dežurni, a person on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives))
The First Neuter Declension (prva srednja sklanjatev) (model is mesto, city, and polje, field)
The Special Neuter Declension (posebna srednja sklanjatev) (model is Krško)
The Fourth Neuter Declension (četrta srednja sklanjatev) (model is dežurno, a thing on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives))
Mass noun (Množinski samostalnik)
In Slovene, mass nouns can be seen similarly to English mass nouns, with some exceptions, as shown below:
- voda (water),
- pohištvo (furniture),
- pesek, (sand),
- perilo, (laundry),
- znanje (knowledge) (singular), znanji (two 'knowledge(s)') (dual), znanja (three and more 'knowledge(s)') (plural).
Verb (Glagol)
Imperfectness and perfectness (Dovršnost in nedovršnost)
Verbs have, as in many languages, two main continuance forms. In English, however, the perfective and imperfective verb forms are substituted by different tense aspects (simple versus continuous).
- skakati (to jump (habitually or continuously) (to be jumping)) [imperfective verb (infinitive)]
- skočiti (to jump (once)) [perfective verb (infinitive)]
- (Jaz) skačem (I am jumping) [imperfective verb in present (continuous) tense]
- (Jaz) skočim (I jump (once)) [perfective verb in present (simple) tense]
- skakal sem (I was jumping) [imperfective verb in past (simple) tense, masculine]
- skakala sem (I was jumping) [imperfective verb of past (continuous) tense, feminine]
--
- skočil sem (I jumped) [perfective verb of past (simple) tense, masculine]
- skočila sem (I jumped) [perfective verb of past (continuous) tense, feminine]
- skakal bom (I will be jumping)[imperfective verb of future (continuous) tense, masculine]
- skakala bom (I will be jumping) [imperfective verb of future (continuous) tense, feminine]
--
- skočil bom (I will jump) [perfective verb of future (simple) tense, masculine]
- skočila bom (I will jump) [perfective verb of future (simple) tense, feminine]
Slovene mostly uses the active voice. Hence, a typical English sentence, such as he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society (izvoljen je bil za člana Kraljeve družbe), would more likely be seen in Slovenian in the form they elected him a fellow of the Royal Society (izvolili so ga za člana Kraljeve družbe). This is usually the main error in style when translating English text to Slovenian and vice versa; for while uncommon, the passive is a valid form in Slovenian.
Verb Tense (Glagolski čas)
In Slovene, there are 4 tenses:
- the Pluperfect (Past Perfect) tense (predpreteklik)
- the Preterite (Past Simple) tense (preteklik)
- the Present tense (sedanjik)
- the Future tense (prihodnjik)
Formation
The Pluperfect
The Pluperfect tense is formed the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the present tense + past ('l') participle of the auxiliary verb biti (to be) + past ('l') participle of the full lexical verb
For example:
- sem bil videl (I had seen)
- je bila odšla (she had gone)
- so bili odkrili (they had discovered)
It describes an action taking place before another action in the past, much the same as the Pluperfect (also known as the Past Perfect) tense in English, or the Plusquamperfekt in German.
The Preterite
The Preterite tense is formed in the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the present tense + past ('l') participle of the full lexical verb
For example:
- sem videl (I saw)
- je odšla (she went)
- so odkrili (they discovered)
The Present Tense
The Present tense is formed in the following way: the present tense of the full lexical verb
For example:
- vidim (I see)
- odhaja (she is going)
- odkrivajo (they are discovering)
The Future Tense
The Future tense is formed in the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the future tense + past ('l') participle of the full lexical verb
For example:
- videl bom (I shall see)
- odšla bo (she will go)
- bodo odkrili (they will discover)
Gerund, Verbal noun (Glagolnik)
Participle (Deležnik)
Present participle
Past participle
Imperative (Velelnik)
The Imperative mood is formed using a different ending to verbs for each person, but more often than not, there is a change in the base as well (for instance: plesati (to dance) - pleši (Dance!), or peti (to sing) - poj (Sing!)).
The following table lists forms for the verbs to be (biti), to go (iti), and a regular verb, to walk (hoditi).
| Singular | Plural | Dual |
| -- | bodimo - pojdimo - hodimo | bodiva - pojdiva - hodiva |
| bodi - pojdi - hodi | bodite - pojdite - hodite | bodita - pojdita - hodita |
The idea expressed by the Imperative, this is, a command, may also be expressed by the modal verb should (naj). For instance: "naj bom" (Let me be.), "naj gredo" (or even "naj pojdejo") (They must go; I order them that they should go.), "naj bo (luč)" (Let there be (light).).
Supine (Namenilnik)
Adjective (Pridevnik)
Comparative (Primernik)
The Comparative is formed by adding the ending ši (ša, še), ejši (ejša, ejše) or ji (ja, je) to an adjective, or using the word bolj (more) in front of an adjective in case of stressing, and also when the adjective in question cannot be formed by adding an ending, such as when dealing with colours, or when the adjective ends in such a sound that it would be difficult to add the appropriate ending.
For instance:
- lep - lepši (beautiful - more beautiful)
- trd - trši (hard - harder) (-d- falls out)
- zelen - bolj zelen (green - greener)
- zanimiv - zanimivejši (interesting - more interesting)
- transparenten - transparentnejši (transparent - more transparent) (-e- falls out)
- globok - globlji (deep - deeper) (notice the added -l-, -o- and -k- fall out)
- otročji - bolj otročji (childish - more childish)
Superlative (Presežnik)
The Superlative is formed by prepending the word naj directly in front of the Comparative, regardless of its comprising of one or two words.
- lep - lepši - najlepši
- trd - trši - najtrši
- zelen - bolj zelen - najbolj zelen
- zanimiv - zanimivejši - najzanimivejši (but najbolj zanimiv is more common)
- transparenten - transparentnejši - najtransparentnejši
- globok - globlji - najgloblji
- otročji - bolj otročji - najbolj otročji
Adverb (Prislov)
The Adverb in Slovene is always the same as the neuter form of any given adjective.
- "Dan je bil lep." (The day was nice.) - masculine adjective
- "Bilo je lepo." (It was nice.) - neuter adjective
--> "Govorili so lepo." (They spoke nicely.)
Pronoun (Zaimek)
Personal (Subjective) pronoun (Osebni zaimek)
Possessive pronoun (Svojilni zaimek)
Interrogative pronoun (Vprašalni zaimek)
Demonstrative pronoun (Kazalni zaimek)
Relative pronoun (Oziralni zaimek)
Indefinite pronoun
Reflexive pronoun (Povratni zaimek)
The Reflexive pronoun in Slovene is se or sebe, the former being the stylistically neutral, the latter emphasised. It is used following a verb either in the Dative or the Accusative, similarly to the German sich. It is, however, the same for all persons and grammatical numbers. Se (sebe) is the Accusative form of the Reflexive pronoun. Its Dative form is si (or sebi).
For example:
- Dative: umivam si roke (I am washing my hands. (in German, Ich wasche MIR die Hände))
- Accusative: umivam se (I am washing myself. (in German, Ich wasche MICH.))
- Dative: umivate si roke (You are washing your hands. (in German, Sie waschen SICH die Hände))
- Accusative: umivate se (You are washing yourselves. (in German, Sie waschen SICH.))
Numeral (Števnik)
Cardinal numeral (Glavni števnik)
Ordinal numeral (Vrstilni števnik)
Interjection (Medmet)
Sentence (Stavek)
Free sentence (Prosti stavek)
- Včeraj sem šel domov. (I went home last night.) (or: Last night (I) went home.)
- Danes prihajam domov. (I am coming home today.)
- Jutri bom šel od doma. (I shall leave home tomorrow.)
- Res me veseli, da si prišel. (I am really glad you came.)
- Da - tako je bilo, kakor praviš! (Yes - it was as you say!)
Incomplete sentence (Nepopolna poved)
This is a sentence which does not have a predicate.
- Rana ura, zlata ura. (Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise; The early bird catches the worm (literary Early hour, golden hour))
- V tistih časih - bil sem še mlad in sem od sveta veliko pričakoval - sem lepega večera srečal starega berača in ... (In those times - I was still young and I expected a lot from the world - I met an old beggar one fair evening and ...)
- "Dobro jutro," je rekla Lojza. ("Good morning," said Aloysine.")
- "Lojza je rekla: "Dobro jutro." ("Aloysine said, "Good morning.")
Clause (Stavčni člen)
In a sentence, there can only be four main clauses, the order of which is seldom crucial:
- subject (osebek) + predicate (povedek) + object (predmet) + adverbial phrase (prislovno določilo).
External links
- Marc L Greenberg about Slovenian: http://www.ku.edu/~slavic/slovene.htm
- Some brief facts about Slovenian: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=SLV
- Slovenian for travelers: http://www.ijs.si/lit/slovene.html
- Slovenian declension (sklanjatev): http://www.amebis.si/sklanjanje/
- Slovenian Alphabet: http://www.ijs.si/slo-chset.html
- "Metelčica" - a Slovenian Alphabet in the 19th century: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~ljubljan/metelcica.html
Language History
Standard Slovenian language links
- 100 M words Corpus of Slovene
- The Slovenian Language Technologies Society
- Slovene-English Parallel Corpus
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