SLOVENIA
Language

Cities in SLOVENIA

Ljubljana

Language

The official language in Slovenia is Slovenian or “Slovenšèina”. Slovenian is a South Slavic language related to Serbian and Croatian. Despite the fact that Slovenian is a unitary language, there are also about fifty dialects and sub-dialects. The purest form of Slovenian is spoken in northwestern Dolenjska.

Freising Manuscript, oldest known document in Slovenian_{Photo: Public domain}

Slovenian is written in the Roman alphabet and has 25 letters. The q, w, x and y are unknown, but diacritics such as è, š, and ž are used. The grammar of Slovenian is not easy with, among other things, six cases for nouns and adjectives, four verb tenses and three plural forms, the singular, double and plural.

Many Slovenians in the east speak German and on the coast people often still speak Italian. Young people can increasingly make do with English taught at school.

The languages of the Hungarian and Italian minority groups are equated with Slovenian.

Some Slovenian words and expressions:

• An-ena
• Two-dve
• Three - tri
• Ten - deset
• Hundred - sto
• Yes - da
• No - ne
• Please - prosim
• Thank you - hvala
• Monday - ponedeljek
• Saturday - sobota
• Sunday - nedelja
• Bread - kruh
• Meat - meso
• Fish - riba
• Arrival - prihodi
• Departure - odhod

---

Sources

Buma, H. / Reishandboek Slovenië
Elmar

Derksen, G. / Slovenië, Istrië (Kroatië)
Gottmer

Wilson, N. / Slovenia
Lonely Planet

CIA - World Factbook

BBC - Country Profiles

Last updated November 2024
Copyright: Team The World of Info