Slovenian is a language from the South-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Slovenian language and the Kajkavian dialect of Croatian are similar in many ways, because the Kajkavian dialect shows a clear and gradual transition from Slovenian to Croatian.
About 2 million people in Slovenia speak Slovenian as their mother tongue, and it is also an official language in Slovenia. Furthermore the language is spoken as a mother tongue in parts of Austria, in particular in Carinthia (the number of Carinthian Slovenes in South Carinthia is about 20,000), in Italy (area around Gorizia, Resia Valley, Canale Valley, Collio, Trieste) and in parts of western Hungary (Comitat Vas). In Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy) and in Carinthia (Austria), Slovenian has the status of an official language. The Carinthian Slovenes in the Austrian Land of Carinthia are legally recognised as an autochthonous minority and receive special protection.
Because the Slovenian language area hardly ever formed a single political entity and because the different valleys or regions were separated from one another by the mountainous topography, many fairly different dialects developed. These can be divided into seven groups.
Hello - zdravo
Thank you - hvala
Cheers - Na zdravje
You are not alone - NISI SAM(A)
Slovenian is written in a variery of the Latin alphabet of its own, the Slovenian alphabet, which includes the letters Č, Š, Ž.
Slovenes in Hungary (5.000 Speaker)
Slovenes in Italy (80.000 Speaker)
Slovenes in Austria (50.000 Speaker)
Slovenes in Serbia (9.000 Speaker)
Slovenes in Croatia (13.000 Speaker)
Slovenia (1.727.000 Speaker)