Languages of Slovenia

Languages of Slovenia
Most spoken languages in Slovenia (Census 2002)
OfficialSlovene[note 1]
MinorityHungarian, Italian,[note 1] Romani, Croatian, Serbian, German[1][2]
ImmigrantCroatian, Serbian, Romani
ForeignCroatian, Serbian, English, German, Italian
SignedSlovenian Sign Language
Keyboard layout
Slovene QWERTZ

Slovenia has been a meeting area of the Slavic, Germanic, Romance, and Uralic linguistic and cultural regions,[3][4][5] which makes it one of the most complex meeting point of languages in Europe.[6] The official and national language of Slovenia is Slovene, which is spoken by a large majority of the population. It is also known, in English, as Slovenian. Two minority languages, namely Hungarian and Italian, are recognised as co-official languages and accordingly protected in their residential municipalities.[7] Other significant languages are Croatian and its variants and Serbian, spoken by most immigrants from other countries of former Yugoslavia and their descendants. Slovenia is ranked among the top European countries regarding the knowledge of foreign languages. The most often taught foreign languages are English and German, followed by Italian, French, and Spanish.[8]

The population of Slovenia has become more diverse in regard to its language through recent decades but is still relatively homogenous — Slovene was in 2002 the first language of 87.8% of the inhabitants.[8][9] It was followed by Croatian (2.8%), Serbian (1.6%) and Serbo-Croatian (1.6%). Italian and Hungarian language, protected by the Constitution of Slovenia, had lower numbers of native speakers.[9][10]


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  1. ^ European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Second Periodical Report: Slovenia (PDF) (Report). Council of Europe. 13 June 2006.
  2. ^ European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Third Periodical Report: Slovenia (PDF) (Report). Council of Europe. 2 June 2009.
  3. ^ "SOER: Country Introduction". Environment Agency of the Republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  4. ^ Vinkler, Jonatan (2008). Medkulturni dialog kot temeljna vrednota EU [Intercultural Dialogue as the Fundamental Value of the EU] (PDF) (in Slovenian and English). Koper: Faculty of Humanities. ISBN 978-961-92233-2-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-10.
  5. ^ "Resolution on the National Security Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia" (PDF). National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. 21 June 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  6. ^ Dular, Janez (2001). "Jezikovni položaj" [Language Situation] (in Slovenian). Government of the Republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  7. ^ "Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia". National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. Archived from the original on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  8. ^ a b "International Mother Language Day 2010". Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  9. ^ a b Štrubelj, Dejan (2006). Primerjava narodne, verske in jezikovne sestave Slovenije: diplomsko delo [Comparison of Ethnic, Religious and Ethnic Structure of Slovenia: Diploma Thesis] (PDF) (in Slovenian). Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  10. ^ "Raziskava Položaj in status pripadnikov narodov nekdanje Jugoslavije vRS.pdf" (PDF) (in Slovenian).