slovenian

Slovenian (slovenščina) is a South Slavic language spoken by about 2.5 million people, primarily in Slovenia where it is the official language, and by Slovenian communities in Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, and among the diaspora.

It belongs to the Western subgroup of South Slavic languages, distinct from Serbo-Croatian; modern standard Slovenian was codified in the 19th century based on central dialects during the Slovenian national revival.

It uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics; the Slovenian alphabet has 25 letters, including č, š, and ž. Diacritics mark phonemic distinctions and palatalized consonants in writing.

The language has three grammatical genders, six noun cases, and a dual number in addition to singular and plural; verbs show tense, aspect, and mood with a relatively free word order driven by inflection. There are many dialects, while standard Slovenian relies on central dialects.

As the official language of Slovenia, Slovenian is used in education, government, media, and daily life; it is also spoken by minority communities in neighboring countries where language rights support bilingual signage and education.