Slovene language – slovenščina

Slovene language today 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 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 9th 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 17th 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 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  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 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?  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 15th century  First Slovene books did not have religious topics  France Prešeren published a first Slovene newspaper