The Slovenian language is beautiful but complicated. It is full of history and secrets. If you are trying to learn Slovenian or a tourist in Slovenian, you will want to know everything about this striking language.
There are various fun facts about Slovenian. For instance, it was the first written one and the one of the first Slavic language. It was a gum for its Nation. It uses particular and dual letters, or there are not really serious words for cursing.
If you are fascinated about Slovenian, you will love learning about the country’s fun facts, like fun facts about the people or territory. At present, let us take a look at 9 fun facts about the Slovenian language.
Fun facts about the Slovenian language
1. Slovene is only spoken by over 2.3 million people
The minor number of people speaking Slovenian makes it nearly a top-secret language. It is spoken by Slovenian minorities in the bordering countries of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Italy and is native language of over 2.1 million people.
As a product of a migration at the beginning of the 20th century Slovene can also be heard in Ohio, USA. After WWII, many Slovenians moved to Argentina and left their home country, so the Slovenian language is also present in South America. Other countries with Slovenian speaking minorities are South Africa, Australia, Canada, and Serbia.
2. Slovene is the oldest written Slavic language
The initial known written documents in the Slovenian languages are The Freising Manuscripts. The original date of these three religious texts cannot be exactly set on, but it is alleged that they were written in the 9th century. The date of origin makes Freising Manuscripts also the oldest texts written in any of the Slavic languages.
The texts were discovered in Freising, Germany. Since 1803 it was displayed in Slovenia once in 2004, and they have been kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.
3. Slovene uses dual
Slovene is one of the rare Indo-European languages which still uses dual- a grammatical numbers that some languages use in addition to plural and singular. It is also the only certified language of the European Union that practices dual. Dual is used when referring to precisely two concepts, objects or persons, identified by the pronoun or noun.
4. There are 46 diverse dialects in Slovenia
On account of only 2.3 million people talking the language, the 46 languages of Slovenian language, often categorizes Slovene as the most varied Slavic language.
Slovenian languages are classified into seven regional groups: Pannonian, Styrian, Royte, Littoral, Lower Carniolan, Upper Carniolan, and Carinthian. Occasionally dialects can be so diverse from one another, that it is hard for people from diverse parts of Slovenia to understand each other.
The diversity of the Slovenian language is well captured in a Slovene proverb “every village has its own voice” which in Slovenian states “Vsaka vas ima svoj glas”.
5. Slovenian language was the glue of the nation
Only declaring its independence in 1991, Slovenia is a moderately young country. Though, the dream of a sovereign country among Slovenes is as ancient as the nation itself.
Diverse kingdoms and countries during history engaged the territory of what is now identified as the Republic of Slovenia. Several of those professions wished to eliminate the Slovenian nation and destroy the Slovenian language.
Still, it was really the Slovenian language that saved the nation together throughout the centuries. It was after hundreds of years of unwillingness and resistance to submit that the country's dream came true and Slovenia lastly became a sovereign country.
6. Slovene was the 12th language in the world with a complete Bible translation
The first sentence from the Bible in the Slovene language looked in the Freising Manuscripts. Though, the Bible was completely translated into the Slovene dialect by Slovenian Lutheran minister Jurij Dalmatin.
The translation was published five years later in 1583 and completed in 1578. Besides its sacred position, Dalmatin’s translation of the Bible also had a huge linguistic position. His translation set values of the Slovenian language for centuries to come.
7. Slovene uses the letter Č, Š, Ž
The latest Slovene alphabet was advanced in the 1840s. It contains 25 letters and was based on the existing Czech alphabet. The alphabet has added letters Č, Š, Ž and the language uses the basic Latin alphabet. The alphabet does not use Y and X.
8. Slovenian cursing is silly
The Sloevenian language does not possess any curse, vulgar words. Typically when Slovenians use old curse words it sounds trivial rather than unpleasant. Possibly the most standard curses in the Slovene language are “Tristo kosmatih medvedov” (Three hundred hairy bears),”Krščen matiček! ” (Baptised Matthew!) and ”Naj te koklja brcne!“(A hen should kick you!).
When Slovenes hope to actually curse, they typically borrow one of the curse words from past Yugoslavian countries.
9. Slovene was forbidden in schools
During WWII Slovenia was employed by Croatians, Hungarians, Italians, and Germans. With the profession came the bar on using the Slovenian language in schools.
Some residents also banned the usage of Slovene in all public places. If held speaking their native language in school, pupils were forced to kneel on a pile of corn, or beaten with a ruler, wooden stick.
Thousands of Slovenian books were also ruined at the time causing irreversible harm to Slovenian heritage.
Wrapping Up
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