Slovene language
Slovene (or Slovenian) language (= slovenski ) jezik (Slovene ( slovenščina )) is the westernmost language in the south Slav branch of the Slavic languages group. It is spoken by about 2,2 million people, the Slovenes who live mostly in Central Europe in Slovenia, plus the Slovenes in Venetian Slovenia (Beneška Slovenija) in Italy, in Austrian Carinthia (Avstrijska Koroška) in Austria, in Slovene Istra (Slovenska Istra) in Croatia, in some southern part of Hungary and the Slovenes dispersed all over the world (specially American Slovenes, Argentine Slovenes, Canadian Slovenes). It is one of the Slavic languages that preserved the dual number (like the upper and lower Sorbian language) and it has a very difficult case system.
Origin of a language and writing, borrowings, modern writing
The earliest manuscript written in Slovene are Brižinski spomeniki (Freising manuscripts or Freisinger monuments, German: Freisinger Denkmäler) found in parchment manuscript miscellany, which in 1803 came from Bavarian city Freising (translated to Slovene 1854 by Slovene Slavist Anton Janežič as Brizno, Brižnik or later adopted Brižinje, Brižine or Brižinj), where there was once a diocese, to State library in Munich. In this manuscript with liturgic - homiletic contents they had found in 1807 three Slovene records. This miscellany was probably episcopal manual (pontificals) and Brižinski spomeniki in it were originated between 972 and 1093, but most probably before 1000. The main support to this dating is writing which was used in the centuries after Charlemagne and is named Caroline minuscule or Carolingian minuscule. ([1] [2] [3]).
This language was for a very long time a secondary language, the language of folk masses in Slovenia in the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire, when the German language had primacy and between a short period during the 2nd World War, when Slovenia was devided among fascist Italian and nazi German hegemony. Because of strong Germanization in Slovene language remained a lot of Germanisms, which are preserved in a special way for example: German das Polster (pillow (blazina)) in Slovene colloquial language is spoken Poušter and German der Schraubenzieher (screwdriver (izvijač)) in technical colloquial language is šrauf'ncigr or šrauf'nciger.
Slovene modern alphabet consists of 25 letters and thus 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.
English and Western ones Q,W,X,Y are in pure genuine language excluded, some Southern Slavic characters too Ć,Đ, but in encyclopedia'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 (i.e. Russian or Serb) - so Newton or Massachusetts remain the same and are not transformed in, for this language strange, Njutn or in Mesečusets. The writing system is phonological, with some exceptions mainly in consonants.
If you don't have a dialect, you don't have a language [An old saying]
There are at least 32 main dialects (narečje) dI and speeches (govor) sP of spoken Slovene language. Main regional groups are:
- koroško (Carinthian),
- vzhodno (Eastern),
- severovzhodno (Northeastern),
- zahodno (Western),
- osrednje (Central),
- gorenjsko (of Upper Carniola),
- belokranjsko (of White Carniola),
- dolenjsko (of Lower Carniola),
- primorsko (Maritime).
There are also local groups and sub-groups sG as:
- banjško (sP),
- baško (sP),
- borjansko,
- bovško,
- briško,
- brkinsko (in Brkini)
- bržansko (in Bržanija in Trieste vicinity),
- celjsko (in Celje),
- cerkljansko (in Cerkljansko),
- činžaško,
- čiško,
- črnovrško,
- goričansko,
- gradiščansko,
- haloško (in Haloze),
- horjulsko (in Horjul),
- idrijsko (in Idrija),
- istrsko, (in Slovene Istra),
- južno belokranjsko (sG)
- južno notranjsko (in south of Notranjsko),
- južno pohorsko (sG),
- kapleško,
- kobariško,
- kostelsko,
- kozjansko - bizeljsko,
- kozjaško (sP),
- kranjskogorsko (in Kranjska Gora) (sP),
- kraško (on Kras),
- laško (in Laško) (sP),
- logaško,
- lovrenško,
- ljubljansko (in Ljubljana),
- mariborsko (in Maribor),
- medijsko,
- mešano kočevsko (sP),
- mežiško (in Mežica),
- nadiško,
- notranjsko (in Notranjsko)
- obirsko,
- obsoško, (along river Soča)
- podjunsko (in Podjuna),
- pohorsko (on Pohorje),
- poljansko,
- posavsko,
- prekmursko (sG),
- prleško (in Prlekija),
- puščavsko,
- remšniško,
- rezijansko (in Rezija),
- ribniško,
- rižansko (in Rižana) (sP),
- rožansko,
- savinjsko (in the valley of Savinja),
- sevniško - krško (sP),
- solčavsko (in Solčava) (sP),
- selško,
- severno belokranjsko (sG),
- severno pohorsko - remšniško,
- srednje beloknjanjsko (sG),
- srednje savinjsko (sG),
- srednje štajersko (sG),
- šavrinsko (sP),
- škofjeloško (in Škofja Loka),
- šokarsko,
- tersko,
- trbonsko,
- tolminsko (in Tolmin),
- trboveljsko (in Trbovlje),
- vzhodno dolenjsko (sG),
- vzhodno gorenjsko (sG),
- vzhodno prleško (sG),
- zagorsko - trboveljsko (sP),
- zasavsko,
- ziljsko,
- zgornje savinjsko (sG),
We can also talk about spoken American Slovene spoken by emigrants in USA. For the dialects from the Carinthian region it is known that they more than in their deep structure differ from each other in their vocal and lexical image; from literary language, however, they differ no more than the other marginal Slovene dialects. That is why the dialects in elementary school can be some kind of natural transition towards literary language and written word. We can see the borders of Slovene dialects on Fran Ramovš's Dialect Map ([4]).
Slovenes gained a national consciousness at the beginning of the 17th century and especially in the 19th century.
France Prešeren is one of the first modern poets of Slovene literature.
The Future Tense
In the Slovene language the future tense is made by the verb to be in future tense plus the past participle of the verb
for example: the English table of I will see (Jaz bom videl) including gender for he (= on) and she (= ona) without it (= ono) can be transformed as:
| 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 |
from the Slovene 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 Slavonic language and from the Old Slavonic language the dual has been transmitted to Slovene. 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]
Dual is also preserved in gender certainly as the above example clearly shows.
Inperfectness and perfectness
Verbs have as in many languages two main continuance forms:
sedeti (to sit (to be sitting)) [inperfective verb (infinitive)] sesti (to sit down) [perfective verb (infinitive)]
The continuance is preserved almost in all tenses:
(Jaz) sedim (I am sitting (I am being sitting ?)) [inperfective verb of present tense] 0 ? (I am sitting down ?) [perfective verb of pr. tense "transformed" to past simple tense]
Note: Personal pronoun I (Jaz) can be, or better "must" be, omitted, because it is not used as frequently as in English language. It is a regular form but not so good. Another fact is, from above example, the gender can be extract directly from such sentences as in English.
sem sedél (I sat (I was being sitting ?)) [inperfective verb of past simple tense] sem sedéla (I sat ( ~ ?)) [inperfective verb of pa.s. tense [+Feminine gender]] -- sem sédel (I sat down (0 ?)) [perfective verb of past simple tense] sem sédla (I sat down (0 ?)) [perfective verb of pa.s. tense [+Feminine gender]]
Note: Gender can be seen.
bom sedel (I will sit (I will be sitting ?)) [inperfective verb of future (simple ?) tense] bom sedela ( ~ ( ~ ?)) [inperfective verb of fu. (s.?) tense[+Feminine gender]] -- se bom vsedel (I will sit down (I will be sitting)) [perfective verb of future (simple ?) tense] se bom vsedla ( ~ ( ~ )) [perfective verb of fu. (s. ?) tense [+Feminine gender]]