Languages
Native
Slovenian
91%
Secondary languages
English
59%
German
42%
Croatian
16%
Language Samples
Zdravo, kako si?
Hello, how are you?
Dobro sem, hvala.
I am well, thank you.
Ena, dve, tri, štiri, pet, šest, sedem, osem, devet, deset.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Slovenian is a South Slavic language and one of the most internally diverse, with around 50 distinct regional dialects that can be mutually unintelligible. It has one of the earliest written records of any Slavic language in the Freising Manuscripts (Brižinski spomeniki) from around 1000 CE — the oldest surviving document in a Slavic language using the Latin alphabet. Despite centuries of Austrian Habsburg rule and pressure from German, Slovenian survived and was codified in the 19th century. Uniquely among Slavic languages still in everyday use, Slovenian has retained the dual grammatical number — a separate form for exactly two of something — alongside singular and plural.
Similar Languages
Croatian
65%
Serbian
60%
Slovak
58%
Czech
55%
Media
Lake Bled with the iconic island church and Bled Castle perched on the cliff above — Slovenia's most photographed landscape.
Photo: Canadianhockey91 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Did You Know
01
Slovenian is one of the very few living languages to retain the grammatical dual number, with distinct verb and noun forms for exactly two people or objects.
02
The Freising Manuscripts (~1000 CE) written in Slovenian are the oldest surviving document written in a Slavic language using the Latin script.
03
Slovenia ranks consistently among the top countries in Europe for English language proficiency, with nearly 60% of the population speaking English as a foreign language.