Learn Slovenian
The best way to get to know Slovenia and its people is to learn the Slovenian language. A special language with a long spoken and written tradition. Slovenians are proud of their language and you immediately gain respect when you can say some (basic) words in Slovenian.
Many possibilities and different language courses can be found online to learn the basics. However, the best way to master the language is to stay in the country a little longer.
Slovenian is a Slavic language and certainly not an easy language for foreigners to learn, even Slovenians make mistakes with their own language. This is partly because there are countless different dialects. Not only that, in addition to singular and plural, Slovenian also has the form of dual with its own conjugations.
The Slovenian alphabet
Slovenian uses the Latin alphabet and has 25 letters, one less than Dutch. Letters that have a haček (ˇ) have their own place in the alphabet. The letters Q, W, X and Y do not exist in the Slovenian alphabet.
| Countries where Slovenian is spoken: | Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Croatia. |
| Slovenian is an official language in: | Slovenia. Recognized regional language in Austria, Hungary and Italy |
| Number of native speakers: | Around 2.5 million speakers. |
| Own name: | Slovenščina, or in full: Slovenski jezik (The Slovenian language). |
| Alphabet: | Roman, with extra characters. |
| Number of letters in the alphabet: | 25 (From A to Ž). |
| Regulation: (From spelling, etc.) |
Slovenska Akademija Znanosti in Umetnosti (SAZU). Slovenian Academy of Science and Art. |
| Classification: (Language family) |
Indo-European ——–> Slavic ———-> South Slavic ———————> Slovenian |
| Slovenian is closely related to: | Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian. |
| To a lesser extent, Slovenian is also related to: | Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Czech and Polish. |
| Slovenian is a distant relative of: | Albanian, Latin, Greek, Irish, Persian, Hindi, Armenian and Lithuanian. |
Useful links:
- https://www.centerslo.si/en/
- https://www.zrss.si/objava/poletna-sola-slovenscine-5
- https://www.myguideslovenia.com/usefulinfo/slovenian-language-basics
- https://www.101languages.net/slovenian/basics.html
