108-663: Prešeren Day ( Slovene : Prešernov dan ), full name Prešeren Day, the Slovene Cultural Holiday ( Slovene : Prešernov dan, slovenski kulturni praznik ), is a public holiday celebrated in Slovenia on 8 February. It is marking the anniversary of the death of the Slovene national poet France Prešeren on 8 February 1849 and is the celebration of the Slovenian culture . It was established in 1945 to raise
216-585: A lingua franca for administrative, scholarly, religious, political, and other purposes in parts of the present-day European Union. After Athens and other Greek city-states of the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the first documented political entity historically verifiable in Europe was the Roman Republic , traditionally founded in 509 BC, the successor-state to the Etruscan city-state confederacies . Latin as
324-642: A derogation previously stipulated that not all documents have to be translated into Irish as is the case with the other official languages. The regulation meant that legislation adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers is translated into Irish, and interpretation from Irish was available at European Parliament plenary sessions and some Council meetings. The cost of translation, interpretation, publication, and legal services involved in making Irish an official EU language
432-558: A lingua franca of Europe was rivalled only by Greek. It is serving as honourable and ceremonial language in some of the oldest European universities in the 21st century, and has operated as the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until today. Latin, along with Greek, was at the core of education in Europe from the schools of rhetoric of the Roman Republic in all of its provinces and territories, through
540-615: A "treaty language" meant that only the treaties of the European Union were translated into Irish, whereas Legal Acts of the European Union adopted under the treaties (like Directives and Regulations ) did not have to be. When Ireland joined the EEC (now the EU ) in 1973, Irish was accorded "Treaty Language" status. This meant that the founding EU Treaty was restated in Irish. Irish
648-461: A , an , the ) or German ( der, die, das, ein, eine ). A whole verb or a noun is described without articles and the grammatical gender is found from the word's termination. It is enough to say barka ('a' or 'the barge'), Noetova barka ('Noah's ark'). The gender is known in this case to be feminine. In declensions , endings are normally changed; see below. If one should like to somehow distinguish between definiteness or indefiniteness of
756-549: A mere 2.8%. During World War II , Slovenia was divided among the Axis Powers of Fascist Italy , Nazi Germany , and Hungary . Each of the occupying powers tried to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene. Following World War II, Slovenia became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . Slovene was one of the official languages of the federation. In the territory of Slovenia, it
864-463: A noun, one would say (prav/natanko/ravno) tista barka ('that/precise/exact barge') for 'the barge' and neka/ena barka ('some/a barge') for 'a barge'. Definiteness of a noun phrase can also be discernible through the ending of the accompanying adjective. One should say rdeči šotor ('[exactly that] red tent') or rdeč šotor ('[a] red tent'). This difference is observable only for masculine nouns in nominative or accusative case. Because of
972-642: A prominent Slovene linguist, commented that, although Slovene is not an endangered language, its scope has been shrinking, especially in science and higher education. The language is spoken by about 2.5 million people, mainly in Slovenia, but also by Slovene national minorities in Friuli-Venezia Giulia , Italy (around 90,000 in Venetian Slovenia , Resia Valley , Canale Valley , Province of Trieste and in those municipalities of
1080-621: A record of a proto-Slovene that was spoken in a more scattered territory than modern Slovene, which included most of the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria , as well as East Tyrol , the Val Pusteria in South Tyrol , and some areas of Upper and Lower Austria . By the 15th century, most of the northern areas were gradually Germanized : the northern border of the Slovene-speaking territory stabilized on
1188-751: A relic from the now modern Russian yery character ⟨ы⟩ , which is itself usually transliterated as ⟨y⟩ ; /j/ as ⟨y⟩ ; /l/ as ⟨ll⟩ ; /ʋ/ as ⟨w⟩ ; /ʒ/ as ⟨ʃ⟩ , ⟨ʃʃ⟩ or ⟨ʃz⟩ . The standard Slovene orthography, used in almost all situations, uses only the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus ⟨č⟩ , ⟨š⟩ , and ⟨ž⟩ . The letters ⟨q⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , ⟨x⟩ , and ⟨y⟩ are not included: /uʷ/ The orthography thus underdifferentiates several phonemic distinctions: In
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#17328016640721296-599: A request of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) to make Luxembourgish an official language of the European Union citing financial reasons and also that German and French being already official languages would be sufficient for the needs of Luxembourg. The Romani people , numbering over two million in the EU, speak the Romani language (actually numerous different languages), which
1404-444: A singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as polvikanje ) signals a somewhat more friendly and less formal attitude while maintaining politeness: The use of nonstandard forms ( polvikanje ) might be frowned upon by many people and would not likely be used in a formal setting. The use of the 3rd person plural oni ('they') form (known as onikanje in both direct address and indirect reference; this
1512-572: A violent policy of Fascist Italianization ; the same policy was applied to Slovene speakers in Venetian Slovenia , Gorizia and Trieste . Between 1923 and 1943, all public use of Slovene in these territories was strictly prohibited, and Slovene-language activists were persecuted by the state. After the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, a less severe policy of Germanization took place in the Slovene-speaking areas of southern Carinthia which remained under Austrian administration. After
1620-450: A vowel. Before a consonant or word-finally, they are reduced to /l/ , /n/ and /r/ respectively. This is reflected in the spelling in the case of /rj/ , but not for /lj/ and /nj/ . Under certain (somewhat unpredictable) circumstances, /l/ at the end of a syllable may become [w] , merging with the allophone of /ʋ/ in that position. Slovene has an eight-vowel (or, according to Peter Jurgec, nine-vowel) system, in comparison to
1728-887: Is 1% of the annual general budget of the EU, or €2.28 per person per year. The EU Parliament has made clear that its member states have autonomy for language education, which by treaty the Union must respect. The vast majority of the 24 official EU languages belong to the Indo-European family : the three dominant subfamilies are the Germanic , Romance , and Slavic . Germanic languages are primarily spoken in central and northern Europe and include Danish, Dutch, English, German, and Swedish. Romance languages are mostly spoken in western and southern European regions; they include French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. The Slavic languages are predominantly found in central Europe and
1836-668: Is a South Slavic language of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the inhabitants of Slovenia , majority of them ethnic Slovenes . As Slovenia is part of the European Union , Slovene is also one of its 24 official and working languages . Its syntax is highly fusional , and it has a dual grammatical number , an archaic feature shared with some other Indo-European languages . Two accentual norms (one characterized by pitch accent ) are used. Its flexible word order
1944-409: Is a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns. This is only relevant for masculine nouns and only in the singular, at odds with some other Slavic languages, e.g. Russian, for which it is also relevant in the plural for all genders. Animate nouns have an accusative singular form that is identical to the genitive, while for inanimate nouns the accusative singular is the same as the nominative. Animacy
2052-672: Is based mostly on semantics and is less rigid than gender. Generally speaking a noun is animate if it refers to something that is generally thought to have free will or the ability to move of its own accord. This includes all nouns for people and animals. All other nouns are inanimate, including plants and other non-moving life forms, and also groups of people or animals. However, there are some nouns for inanimate objects that are generally animate, which mostly include inanimate objects that are named after people or animals. This includes: There are no definite or indefinite articles as in English (
2160-599: Is celebrated not only in Slovenia, but also by Slovene communities all around the world. The anniversary of Prešeren's death first became a prominent date during World War II in 1941, when 7 February was celebrated as the day of all- Slavic unity. The proposal to celebrate 8 February as the Slovene cultural holiday was put forward in January 1945, during World War II , in Črnomelj by the Slovene Liberation Front 's cultural worker Bogomil Gerlanc . It
2268-427: Is in fact used by some European Parliament constituents as a spoken dialect of Portuguese due to its similarity with this language. Luxembourgish ( Luxembourg ) and Turkish ( Cyprus ) are the only two national languages that are not official languages of the EU. Neither Luxembourg nor Cyprus have yet used the provision of 13 June 2005 resolution to benefit from use in official EU institutions. On 26 February 2016 it
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#17328016640722376-524: Is not official in any EU member state or polity, except for being an official minority language of Sweden and Finland . Moreover, Romani mass media and educational institution presences are near-negligible. Though not an official language of the European Union, Russian is spoken in all member states that were part of the Soviet Union (and before that the Russian Empire ). Russian is
2484-584: Is often adjusted for emphasis or stylistic reasons, although basically it is an SVO language. It has a T–V distinction : the use of the V-form demonstrates a respectful attitude towards superiors and the elderly, while it can be sidestepped through the passive form. Standard Slovene is the national standard language that was formed in the 18th and 19th century, based on Upper and Lower Carniolan dialect groups , more specifically on language of Ljubljana and its adjacent areas. The Lower Carniolan dialect group
2592-572: Is proved by the survival of certain ritual formulas in Slovene (such as the ritual installation of the Dukes of Carinthia). The words Buge waz primi, gralva Venus! ('God be With You, Queen Venus!'), with which Bernhard von Spanheim greeted the poet Ulrich von Liechtenstein , who was travelling around Europe in guise of Venus, upon his arrival in Carinthia in 1227 (or 1238), is another example of some level of Slovene knowledge among high nobility in
2700-552: Is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the council and the requesting member state. Although Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician are not nationwide official languages in Spain, as co-official languages in
2808-509: Is similar to using Sie in German) as an ultra-polite form is now archaic or dialectal. It is associated with servant-master relationships in older literature, the child-parent relationship in certain conservative rural communities, and parishioner-priest relationships. Foreign words used in Slovene are of various types depending on the assimilation they have undergone. The types are: The loanwords are mostly from German and Italian , while
2916-548: Is the most commonly used. The most widely understood language in the EU is English, which is understood by 44% of all adults, while German is the most widely used mother tongue, spoken by 18%. French is an official language in all three of the cities that are political centres of the Union: Brussels , Belgium; Strasbourg , France; and Luxembourg City , Luxembourg. Since the exit of the United Kingdom from
3024-649: Is universal, though. At least five different Sami languages are spoken in Sweden, but "Sami language" (undifferentiated) is recognised as an official minority language in Sweden , and is co-official with Swedish in four municipalities in Norrbotten County (Swedish Lapland). Most of Sami speakers speak Northern Sami (5,000–6,000 speakers), although there are ca. 1,000–2,000 Lule Sami speakers and 600 Southern Sami speakers. Also Ume Sámi and Pite Sámi are spoken in Sweden. For millennia, Latin served as
3132-532: The Anschluss of 1938, the use of Slovene was strictly forbidden in Carinthia, as well. This accelerated a process of language shift in Carinthia, which continued throughout the second half of the 20th century: according to the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, around 21% of inhabitants of Carinthia spoke Slovene in their daily communication; by 1951, this figure dropped to less than 10%, and by 2001 to
3240-568: The Balkans in southeastern Europe; they include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. The Baltic languages , Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages , including Irish; and Greek are also Indo-European. Outside the Indo-European family, Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian are Uralic languages , while Maltese is the only Afroasiatic language with official status in
3348-450: The Celtic language known as Scottish Gaelic ) and several Romance languages spoken in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, such as Aragonese , Asturian , Mirandese , Lombard , Ligurian , Piedmontese , Venetian , Corsican , Neapolitan and Sicilian . The French constitution stipulates French as the sole language of France. Since the 2008 modifications , article 75-1 of the Constitution adds that "regional languages form part of
Prešeren Day - Misplaced Pages Continue
3456-815: The European Ombudsman , Nikiforos Diamandouros , and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels to allow Spanish citizens to address complaints to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, all three co-official languages in Spain. According to the agreement, a translation body, which will be set up and financed by the Spanish government, will be responsible for translating complaints submitted in these languages. In turn, it will translate
3564-480: The Northern Ireland region of the United Kingdom, then an EU member state, Irish was not made an official working language of the EU until 1 January 2007. On that date an EU Council Regulation making Irish an official working language of the EU came into effect. This followed a unanimous decision on 13 June 2005 by EU foreign ministers that Irish would be made the 21st official language of the EU. However,
3672-550: The Protestant Reformation . The most prominent authors from this period are Primož Trubar , who wrote the first books in Slovene; Adam Bohorič , the author of the first Slovene grammar; and Jurij Dalmatin , who translated the entire Bible into Slovene. From the high Middle Ages up to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, in the territory of present-day Slovenia, German
3780-634: The Province of Gorizia bordering with Slovenia), in southern Carinthia , some parts of Styria in Austria (25,000) and in the western part of Croatian Istria bordering with Slovenia. It is also spoken in Rijeka and Zagreb (11,800-13,100), in southwestern Hungary (3-5,000), in Serbia (5,000), and by the Slovene diaspora throughout Europe and the rest of the world (around 300,000), particularly in
3888-820: The Slavic languages , together with Serbo-Croatian . It is close to the Chakavian and especially Kajkavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian, but genealogically more distant from the Shtokavian dialect , the basis for the Bosnian , Croatian , Montenegrin , and Serbian standard languages. Slovene in general, and Prekmurje Slovene in particular, shares the highest level of mutual intelligibility with transitional Kajkavian dialects of Hrvatsko Zagorje and Međimurje . Furthermore, Slovene shares certain linguistic characteristics with all South Slavic languages , including those of
3996-952: The Slovene Lands where compulsory schooling was in languages other than Standard Slovene, as was the case with the Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, and the Slovene minority in Italy . For example, the Resian and Torre (Ter) dialects in the Italian Province of Udine differ most from other Slovene dialects. Slovene is an Indo-European language belonging to the Western subgroup of the South Slavic branch of
4104-557: The United States (most notably Ohio , home to an estimated 3,400 speakers), Canada , Argentina , Australia and South Africa . Slovene is sometimes characterized as the most diverse Slavic language in terms of dialects , with different degrees of mutual intelligibility. Accounts of the number of dialects range from as few as seven dialects, often considered dialect groups or dialect bases that are further subdivided into as many as 50 dialects. Other sources characterize
4212-590: The institutions of the EU . Institutions have the right to define the linguistic regime of their working but the Commission and a number of other institutions did not do this as indicated by several Court judgments The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. This principle is enshrined in the EU Charter of fundamental rights (art. 22) and in the Treaty on European Union (art. 3(3) TEU). In
4320-577: The 16th century, and ultimately led to the formation of more standard language. The Upper dialect was also used by most authors during the language revival in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and was also the language spoken by France Prešeren , who, like most of Slovene writers and poets, lived and worked in Ljubljana, where speech was growing closer to the Upper Carniolan dialect group. Unstandardized dialects are more preserved in regions of
4428-471: The 1910s is frequently closer to modern Slovene than a text from the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1920 and 1941, the official language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was defined as "Serbo-Croato-Slovene", which was in practice merely Serbo-Croatian. In Slovenia however, Slovene remained in use in education and administration. Many state institutions used only Serbo-Croatian, and a Slovene–Serbo-Croatian bilingualism
Prešeren Day - Misplaced Pages Continue
4536-630: The 1999 national Framework Law on the Country's historical linguistic minorities , in accordance with the Article 6 of the Italian Constitution . However, many languages other than Italian and the above-mentioned twelve are spoken across the country, most of them being either Gallo-Italic or Italo-Dalmatian , which lack any sort of official recognition and protection. The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in
4644-506: The 19th century, when the cultures of vernacular languages and the "national languages" started to gain ground and claim status. Today, several institutions of the European Union use Latin in their logos and domain names instead of listing their names in all the official languages. For example, the European Court of Justice has its website at "curia.europa.eu". The Court of Auditors uses Curia Rationum in its logo. The Council of
4752-404: The 2nd person singular ti form (known as tikanje ) is officially limited to friends and family, talk among children, and addressing animals, it is increasingly used among the middle generation to signal a relaxed attitude or lifestyle instead of its polite or formal counterpart using the 2nd person plural vi form (known as vikanje ). An additional nonstandard but widespread use of
4860-486: The EU in 2020, the government of France has encouraged greater use of French as a working language. Luxembourgish and Turkish , which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus , respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU. In 2023, the Spanish government requested that its co-official languages Catalan , Basque , and Galician be added to
4968-473: The EU are also working languages . Documents which a member state or a person subject to the jurisdiction of a member state sends to institutions of the Community may be drafted in any one of the official languages selected by the sender. The reply is drafted in the same language. Regulations and other documents of general application are drafted in the twenty-four official languages. The Official Journal of
5076-513: The EU by migrants and refugees who have left the region as a result of the Yugoslav wars and unrest there. There are large Chinese communities in France , Spain , Italy , and other countries. Old and recent Chinese migrants speak a number of Chinese varieties , in particular Cantonese and other southern Chinese varieties. However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to
5184-599: The EU for the languages of the autonomous communities of Spain , Catalan / Valencian , Galician and Basque . The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in Luxembourg on 13 June 2005, decided to authorise limited use at EU level of languages recognised by member states other than the official working languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status
5292-467: The EU has very limited influence in this area, as the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, a number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity . All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages , but in practice only three – English, French, and German – are in wide general use in its institutions, and of these, English
5400-556: The EU is bowing to pressure to exclude Russian speakers in the Baltic in this way". In Finland, the Sami languages Northern Sami (ca. 2,000 speakers), Skolt Sami (400) and Inari Sami (300) have limited local recognition in certain municipalities of Finnish Lapland . Furthermore, legislation specifically concerning the Sami must be translated to these languages. Bilingualism with Finnish
5508-461: The EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the EU does not have a common language policy; EU institutions play a supporting role in this field, based on the principle of " subsidiarity "; they promote a European dimension in the member states' language policies. The EU encourages all its citizens to be multilingual ; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their native language . Though
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#17328016640725616-634: The EU. Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script . The two exceptions are Greek , which is written in the Greek script , and Bulgarian , which is written in Cyrillic script . With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following the Latin and Greek scripts. The original design of euro banknotes had
5724-581: The EU. Some regional or minority languages spoken within the EU do not have official recognition at EU level. Some of them may have some official status within the member state and count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages. The official languages of EU are in bold . In the list, language varieties classified as dialects of an official language by member countries are not included. However, many of these varieties may be viewed as separate languages: for instance, Scots (the Germanic language descended from Old English , not
5832-569: The EU. Dutch , English , French , German , Greek , and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian , Czech , Danish , Hungarian , Italian , Slovak , and Slovene are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level. Furthermore, not all national languages have been accorded the status of official EU languages. These include Luxembourgish , an official language of Luxembourg since 1984, and Turkish , an official language of Cyprus . All languages of
5940-417: The EU. This was done in exchange for the support of the Catalan separatist party Junts for Francina Armengol 's candidacy for President of the Congress of Deputies . Without such support the PSOE would likely have been unable to form a new government and a second election would have been held in the same year. Galician in particular, not being itself a European Parliament official language, can be used and
6048-447: The Eastern subgroup, namely Bulgarian , Macedonian and Torlakian dialects. Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, Kajkavian being firmly the most mutually intelligible . Slovene has some commonalities with the West Slavic languages that are not found in other South Slavic languages. Like all Slavic languages , Slovene traces its roots to
6156-424: The European Union The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages , of which three – English , French and German – were considered "procedural" languages but this notion was abandoned by the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working languages ). In fact English and French are used in the day-to-day workings of
6264-399: The European Union is published in the twenty-four official languages. Documents of major public importance or interest are produced in all official languages, but that accounts for a minority of the institutions′ work. Other documents—e.g., communications with the national authorities, decisions addressed to particular individuals or entities and correspondence—are translated only into
6372-446: The European Union has its website at "consilium.europa.eu" and its logo showing Consilium . The European Union itself has a Latin motto : " In varietate concordia ". Under the European Company Regulation , companies can be incorporated as Societas Europaea (Latin for "European Company", often shortened to "SE" after the company's own proper name). Latin is one of the languages of IATE (the inter-institutional terminology database of
6480-449: The European Union). A wide variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in EU countries. Turkish (which is also an official language of the EU member Cyprus) is spoken as a first language by an estimated 1% of the population in Belgium and the western part of Germany , and by 1% in the Netherlands . Other widely used migrant languages include Berber languages which are spoken by about 1% of
6588-477: The French heritage". Nevertheless, there exist a number of languages spoken by sizable minorities, such as Breton (a Celtic language), Basque , and several Romance languages such as Occitan , Catalan , Corsican and the various langues d'oïl (other than French), as well as Germanic languages spoken in Alsace-Lorraine (Central Franconian, High Franconian, Luxembourgish, and Alemannic) and French Flanders (Dutch). These languages enjoy no official status under
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#17328016640726696-411: The French state, and regions are not permitted to bestow any such status themselves. The official language of Greece is Greek, and recognized minority languages are Armenian, Ladino and Turkish. Nevertheless, there are several other languages in Greece, which lack any recognition. These are Albanian, Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian (these last two usually being collectively known as "Vlach"), Romani and
6804-407: The Ombudsman's decisions from Spanish into the language of the complainant. Until such a body is established the agreement will not become effective. Following the 2023 Spanish general election , the PSOE -led Spanish government sent a letter to the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union , asking for Catalan, Basque, and Galician to be added to the current 24 official languages of
6912-445: The Slavic varieties spoken in the country . Greece has been described as the only European Union member state that sticks to a "linguistic assimilationist ideology". Italy's official language is Italian, although twelve additional languages (namely Albanian , Catalan , German , Greek , Slovene , Croatian , French , Franco-Provençal , Friulian , Ladin , Occitan and Sardinian ) have been recognized as minority languages by
7020-408: The areas around Trieste . During most of the Middle Ages, Slovene was a vernacular language of the peasantry, although it was also spoken in most of the towns on Slovenian territory, together with German or Italian. Although during this time, German emerged as the spoken language of the nobility, Slovene had some role in the courtly life of the Carinthian, Carniolan and Styrian nobility, as well. This
7128-501: The cultural consciousness and the self-confidence of the Slovene nation , and declared a work-free day in 1991. On 7 February, the eve of the holiday, the Prešeren Awards and the Prešeren Fund Awards, the highest Slovenian recognitions for cultural achievements, are conferred. Prešeren Day continues to be one of the most widely celebrated Slovene holidays. During the holiday all state and municipal museums and galleries offer free entry, and various other cultural events are held. The holiday
7236-409: The education system) and just over 72,000 use Irish as a daily language outside the education system. At the time of Croatia's accession to the EU , some diplomats and officials suggested that, rather than accepting the Croatian written standard as an official EU language, the EU should instead adopt a single unified literary form that would encompass several nearly-identical written standards of
7344-542: The end of words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, voicing distinction is neutralized and all consonants assimilate the voicing of the rightmost segment, i.e. the final consonant in the cluster. In this context, [v] , [ɣ] and [d͡z] may occur as voiced allophones of /f/ , /x/ and /t͡s/ , respectively (e.g. vŕh drevésa [ʋrɣ dreˈʋesa] ). /ʋ/ has several allophones depending on context. The sequences /lj/ , /nj/ and /rj/ occur only before
7452-424: The excessive usage of regionalisms. Regionalisms are mostly limited to culinary and agricultural expressions, although there are many exceptions. Some loanwords have become so deeply rooted in the local language that people have considerable difficulties in finding a standard expression for the dialect term (for instance, kremšnita meaning a type of custard cake is kremna rezina in Standard Slovene, but
7560-411: The first novel in Slovene in 1866. This tendency was reversed in the Fin de siècle period by the first generation of modernist Slovene authors (most notably the writer Ivan Cankar ), who resorted to a more "pure" and simple language without excessive Serbo-Croatian borrowings. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1920s and 1930s, the influence of Serbo-Croatian increased again. This was opposed by
7668-402: The first time in the state's history. Irish is the only official language of the EU that is not the most widely spoken language in any member state. According to the 2006 Irish census figures, there are 1.66 million people in Ireland with some ability to speak Irish, out of a population of 4.6 million, though only 538,500 use Irish on a daily basis (counting those who use it mainly in
7776-415: The five-vowel system of Serbo-Croatian. Slovene nouns retain six of the seven Slavic noun cases: nominative , accusative , genitive , dative , locative and instrumental . There is no distinct vocative ; the nominative is used in that role. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns have three numbers: singular, dual and plural. Nouns in Slovene are either masculine, feminine or neuter gender. In addition, there
7884-433: The lack of article in Slovene and audibly insignificant difference between the masculine adjective forms, most dialects do not distinguish between definite and indefinite variants of the adjective, leading to hypercorrection when speakers try to use Standard Slovene. Slovene, like most other European languages, has a T–V distinction , or two forms of 'you' for formal and informal situations. Although informal address using
7992-407: The languages needed. For internal purposes the EU institutions are allowed by law to choose their own language arrangements. The European Commission , for example, conducts its internal business in three languages, English , French , and German (sometimes called "procedural languages"), and goes fully multilingual only for public information and communication purposes. The European Parliament , on
8100-549: The latter term is very rarely used in speech being considered inappropriate for non-literary registers ). Southwestern dialects incorporate many calques and loanwords from Italian, whereas eastern and northwestern dialects are replete with lexemes of German origin. Usage of such words hinders intelligibility between dialects and is greatly discouraged in formal situations. Slovene has a phoneme set consisting of 21 consonants and 8 vowels . Slovene has 21 distinctive consonant phonemes. All voiced obstruents are devoiced at
8208-480: The line going from north of Klagenfurt to south of Villach and east of Hermagor in Carinthia, while in Styria it was more or less identical with the current Austrian-Slovenian border. This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when a second process of Germanization took place, mostly in Carinthia. Between the 9th and 12th century, proto-Slovene spread into northern Istria and in
8316-483: The medieval trivium and quadrivium , through the humanists and the Renaissance, all the way to Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (just to name one example of thousands of scientific works written in this language), to the public schools of all European countries, where Latin (along with Greek) was at the core of their curricula. Latin served as the undisputed European lingua franca until
8424-768: The more recently borrowed and less assimilated words are typically from English . This alphabet ( abeceda ) was derived in the mid-1840s from the system created by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj . Intended for the Serbo-Croatian language (in all its varieties), it was patterned on the Czech alphabet of the 1830s. Before that /s/ was, for example, written as ⟨ ʃ ⟩ , ⟨ʃʃ⟩ or ⟨ſ⟩ ; /tʃ/ as ⟨tʃch⟩ , ⟨cz⟩ , ⟨tʃcz⟩ or ⟨tcz⟩ ; /i/ sometimes as ⟨y⟩ as
8532-589: The native language of about 1.6 million Baltic Russians residing in Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania , as well as a sizeable community of about 3.5 million in Germany and as a major immigrant language elsewhere in the EU , e.g. in and around Paris. Russian is also understood by a majority of ethnic Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians born before c. 1980, since, as official language of the Soviet Union , it
8640-585: The number of dialects as nine or eight. The Slovene proverb "Every village has its own voice" ( Vsaka vas ima svoj glas ) depicts the differences in dialects. The Prekmurje dialect used to have a written norm of its own at one point. The Resian dialects have an independent written norm that is used by their regional state institutions. Speakers of those two dialects have considerable difficulties with being understood by speakers of other varieties of Slovene, needing code-switching to Standard Slovene. Other dialects are mutually intelligible when speakers avoid
8748-487: The official languages of the EU. As of 30 July 2023 , the official languages of the European Union , as stipulated in the latest amendment of Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community of 1958, are: The number of member states exceeds the number of official languages, as several national languages are shared by two or more countries in
8856-484: The other Western Balkan states eventually joined the EU as well. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was cited as an example of an international body that had conducted business in such a unified standard. In negotiations with Croatia , however, it was agreed that the Croatian standard would become a separate official EU language, as none of the other states at issue had yet been admitted to
8964-489: The other hand, has members who need working documents in their own languages, so its document flow is fully multilingual from the outset. Non-institutional EU bodies are not legally obliged to make language arrangement for all the 24 languages The translations are expensive. According to the EU's English-language website, the cost of maintaining the institutions’ policy of multilingualism—i.e., the cost of translation and interpretation—was €1,123 million in 2005, which
9072-637: The population of both the Netherlands and Belgium and by many Berber migrants in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Arabic is spoken in many EU countries mainly in its Maghrebi and Levantine varieties. Maghrebi Arabic is spoken by migrants in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Levantine Arabic is spoken by migrants in Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Greece. Languages from former Yugoslavia ( Serbian , Bosnian , Macedonian , Albanian , etc.) are spoken in many parts of
9180-471: The post-breakup influence of Serbo-Croatian on Slovene continued to a lesser extent, most prominently in slang in colloquial language . Joža Mahnič , a literary historian and president of the publishing house Slovenska matica , said in February 2008 that Slovene is a language rich enough to express everything, including the most sophisticated and specialised texts. In February 2010, Janez Dular ,
9288-519: The region. The first printed Slovene words, stara pravda (meaning 'old justice' or 'old laws'), appeared in 1515 in Vienna in a poem of the German mercenaries who suppressed the Slovene peasant revolt : the term was presented as the peasants' motto and battle cry. Standard Slovene emerged in the second half of the 16th century, thanks to the works of Slovene Lutheran authors, who were active during
9396-468: The respective regions—pursuant to Spanish constitution, among other documents—they are eligible to benefit from official use in EU institutions under the terms of 13 June 2005 resolution of the Council of the European Union. The Spanish government has assented to the provisions in respect of these languages. The status of Catalan, spoken by over 9 million EU citizens (just over 1.8% of the total), has been
9504-533: The rise of Romantic nationalism in the 19th century, the cultural movements of Illyrism and Pan-Slavism brought words from Serbo-Croatian , specifically Croatian dialects, and Czech into standard Slovene, mostly to replace words previously borrowed from German. Most of these innovations have remained, although some were dropped in later development. In the second half of the 19th century, many nationalist authors made an abundant use of Serbo-Croatian words: among them were Fran Levstik and Josip Jurčič , who wrote
9612-486: The same language, historically known as Serbo-Croatian , the official language of Yugoslavia until its disintegration and the division of the language among ethnic lines. In addition to Croatian, this would include the Serbian , Bosnian , and Montenegrin written standards, all of them based in the same spoken dialect of Eastern Herzegovina , with the goal of reducing potential translation and interpretation costs if
9720-519: The same proto-Slavic group of languages that produced Old Church Slavonic . The earliest known examples of a distinct, written dialect connected to Slovene are from the Freising manuscripts , known in Slovene as Brižinski spomeniki . The consensus estimate of their date of origin is between 972 and 1039 (most likely before 1000). These religious writings are among the oldest surviving manuscripts in any Slavic language. The Freising manuscripts are
9828-530: The standard orthography, Slovene also uses standardized diacritics or accent marks to denote stress , vowel length and pitch accent , much like the closely related Serbo-Croatian . However, as in Serbo-Croatian, use of such accent marks is restricted to dictionaries, language textbooks and linguistic publications. In normal writing, the diacritics are almost never used, except in a few minimal pairs where real ambiguity could arise. Languages of
9936-676: The subject of particular debate. On 11 December 1990, the use of Catalan was the subject of a European Parliament Resolution (resolution A3-169/90 on languages in the [European] Community and the situation of Catalan). On 16 November 2005, the President Peter Straub of the Committee of the Regions signed an agreement with the Spanish Ambassador to the EU, Carlos Bastarreche [ es ] , approving
10044-414: The tonemic varieties of Slovene, the ambiguity is even greater: ⟨e⟩ in a final syllable can stand for any of /éː/ /èː/ /ɛ́ː/ /ɛ̀ː/ /ɛ/ /ə/ (although /ɛ̀ː/ is rare; and Slovene, except in some dialects, does not distinguished tonemic accentuation). The reader is expected to gather the interpretation of the word from the context, as in these examples: To compensate for the shortcomings of
10152-475: The two, although only Prešeren Day in February is officially recognised as a national holiday. Since it became a work-free day, it has become even more highly valued. Slovene language Slovene ( / ˈ s l oʊ v iː n / SLOH -veen or / s l oʊ ˈ v iː n , s l ə -/ sloh- VEEN , slə- ) or Slovenian ( / s l oʊ ˈ v iː n i ə n , s l ə -/ sloh- VEE -nee-ən, slə- ; slovenščina )
10260-559: The use of Spanish regional languages in an EU institution for the first time in a meeting on that day, with interpretation provided by European Commission interpreters. On 3 July 2006, the European Parliament's Bureau approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the European Parliament in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, two months after its initial rejection. On 30 November 2006,
10368-519: The word euro written in both Latin (Euro) and Greek (Ευρώ) letters; the Cyrillic spelling (Eвро) was added to the new Europa series of banknotes started in 2013 (see Linguistic issues concerning the euro ). Although Maltese is an official language, the Council set a transitional period of three years from 1 May 2004, during which the institutions were not obliged to draft all acts in Maltese. It
10476-414: The younger generations of Slovene authors and intellectuals; among the most fierce opponents of an excessive Serbo-Croatian influence on Slovene were the intellectuals associated with the leftist journal Sodobnost , as well as some younger Catholic activists and authors. After 1945, numerous Serbo-Croatian words that had been used in the previous decades were dropped. The result was that a Slovene text from
10584-813: Was a compulsory school subject in those countries that were part of the Soviet Union . To a lesser extent, this legacy also holds true among the older generation in parts of the EU that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc , such as the GDR . In March 2010 fact-sheets in Russian produced by the EU executive's offices in Latvia were withdrawn, provoking criticism from Plaid Cymru MEP and European Free Alliance group President Jill Evans who called European Commission to continue to provide information in non-official EU languages and commented that "it's disappointing to hear that
10692-438: Was agreed that the council could extend this transitional period by an additional year, but decided not to. All new acts of the institutions were required to be adopted and published in Maltese from 30 April 2007. Irish previously had the status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007. However, a temporary derogation was enforced until 1 January 2022. The designation of Irish as
10800-475: Was also listed in that treaty and all subsequent EU treaties as one of the authentic languages of the treaties. As a Treaty Language, Irish was an official procedural language of the European Court of Justice . It was also possible to correspond in written Irish with the EU Institutions. However, despite being the first official language of Ireland and having been accorded minority-language status in
10908-484: Was applied in many spheres of public life in Slovenia. For example, at the post offices, railways and in administrative offices, Serbo-Croatian was used alongside Slovene. However, state employees were expected to be able to speak Slovene in Slovenia. During the same time, western Slovenia (the Slovenian Littoral and the western districts of Inner Carniola ) was under Italian administration and subjected to
11016-459: Was commonly used in almost all areas of public life. One important exception was the Yugoslav army , where Serbo-Croatian was used exclusively, even in Slovenia. National independence has further fortified the language: since 1991, when Slovenia gained independence, Slovene has been used as an official language in all areas of public life. In 2004 it became one of the official languages of the European Union upon Slovenia's admission. Nonetheless,
11124-411: Was estimated at just under €3.5 million a year. On 3 December 2015, a new regulation passed by the council had set a definitive schedule on the gradual reduction of the derogation of the Irish language. This regulation outlined a schedule of gradual reduction spread across five years starting from 2016. The derogation was ultimately revoked on 1 January 2022, making Irish a fully recognised EU language for
11232-437: Was made public that Cyprus has asked to make Turkish an official EU language, in a “gesture” that could help reunification and improve EU–Turkey relations. Already in 2004, it was planned that Turkish would become an official language if Cyprus reunited. Turkish is also a recognized minority language in two EU member countries ( Greece and Romania ). In September 2010, Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn declined
11340-501: Was marked with many cultural festivals and remembrances and with school excursions to culturally significant institutions. The declaration of Prešeren Day as a work-free day in 1991 was opposed by many, claiming it would bring the banalisation of a holiday designed to be dedicated to cultural events. As a result, 3 December, the anniversary of the poet's birth, has also become widely celebrated as an alternative holiday. Today both days are almost equally celebrated, with no antagonism between
11448-757: Was officially proclaimed a cultural holiday with a decree passed by the Presidency of the Slovene National Liberation Council on 28 January 1945 and published in the newspaper Slovenski poročevalec on 1 February 1945. It remained a public holiday during the era of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia within the SFR Yugoslavia and was celebrated also by the Carinthian Slovenes and the Slovenes in Italy . It
11556-434: Was the dialect used in the 16th century by Primož Trubar for his writings, while he also used Slovene as spoken in Ljubljana, since he lived in the city for more than 20 years. It was the speech of Ljubljana that Trubar took as a foundation of what later became standard Slovene, with small addition of his native speech, that is Lower Carniolan dialect . Trubar's choice was later adopted also by other Protestant writers in
11664-399: Was the language of the elite, and Slovene was the language of the common people. During this period, German had a strong influence on Slovene, and many Germanisms are preserved in contemporary colloquial Slovene. Many Slovene scientists before the 1920s also wrote in foreign languages, mostly German, which was the lingua franca of science throughout Central Europe at the time. During
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