Slovene language slovenina Slovene language today n n

Slovene language – slovenščina

Slovene language today n n n Official language of the Republic of Slovenia Law on public use of Slovene language (15 th July 2004) Native language for 2. 2 million people Minority and second official language in some parts of Austria, Hungary and Italy Official language of the EU

Linguistic characteristics n n n n One of the Slavonic languages (South Slavonic Language) Latin script – 25 letters Mostly phonetic Three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) 3 numbers (singular, dual, plural) 6 cases 3 tenses (past, present, future)

History - I n n 9 th and 10 th century: Freising fragments or Brižinski spomeniki (religious writings) 16 th century: First two books Abecednik and Katekizem in 1550 by Primož Trubar 17 th century – mainly manuscripts of private correspondence 18 th century – development of regional dialects and a need for a unified, standard language, a variety of uses of the language itself

History - II n n n 19 th century – Romantic era with France Prešeren – development of artistic texts, first long-lasting Slovene newspaper 20 th century – relationship with Serbo. Croat language 21 st century q q Official language of the EU Translating European legislation into Slovene Can Slovene survive as a language of science? Slovene language in the world – taught at many universities

Language and national identity n n In history Slovenes were always parts of bigger countries – Habsburg Monarchy, Austo-Hungarian Empire, Yugoslavia – but managed to preserve their language and with it their national identify 1848 – political programme Unified Slovenia: demanded a free use of Slovene language

True or false? q q q q There are 3 official languages in Slovenia. Slovene is a mother tongue to 5 million people Slovene language is written in a Cyrillic alphabet There are three numbers in Slovene grammar First Slovene book was published in 15 th century First Slovene books did not have religious topics France Prešeren published a first Slovene newspaper