Slovene Language - Writing System

Writing System

Main articles: Slovene alphabet and Slovene braille See also: Bohorič alphabet, Metelko alphabet, and Dajnko alphabet

This alphabet (Slovene: abeceda) was derived in the mid-1840s from the system created by Croatianist Ljudevit Gaj. Intended for Serbo-Croatian language (in all its varieties), it was patterned on the Czech pattern 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 a relic from now modern Russian yery ⟨ы⟩; /j/ as ⟨y⟩; /l/ as ⟨ll⟩; /ʋ/ as ⟨w⟩; /ʒ/ as ⟨ʃ⟩, ⟨ʃʃ⟩ or ⟨ʃz⟩.

The writing itself in its pure form does not use any letters beyond the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus ⟨č⟩, ⟨š⟩, and ⟨ž⟩, except optional diacritics when it is necessary to distinguish between similar words with a different meaning. Note that these are usually not written and the reader is expected to gather the meaning of the word from the context. When diacritics are not used, the orthography underdifferentiates the phonemes /e/, /ɛ/ and /ə/, which are all written ⟨e⟩, and the phonemes /ɔ/ and /o/, which are both written ⟨o⟩. For example:

  • gòl /ɡəu/ ('naked') vs. gól /ɡol/('goal'),
  • jêsen /'jɛsən/ ('ash (tree)') vs. jesén /jɛ'sen/ ('autumn'),
  • kót /kot/ ('angle') vs. kot /kɔt/ ('as'),
  • med /mɛt/ ('between') vs. méd /met/ ('honey'),
  • pôl /pɔl/ ('half an hour before (the hour)') vs. pól /pol/ ('pole'),
  • prècej /'pretsɛj/ ('at once', archaic) vs. precèj /prɛ'tsɛj/ ('a great deal (of)'),
letter phoneme first letter in a word word pronunciation
A (a) /a/ abecéda ('alphabet')
B (b) /b/ beséda ('word')
C (c) /t͡s/ cvét ('bloom')
Č (č) /t͡ʃ/ časopís ('newspaper')
D (d) /d/ dánes ('today')
E (e) /e/, /ɛ/, /ə/ sédem ('seven'), rêči ('to say'), sem ('I am') ,
F (f) /f/ fànt ('boy')
G (g) /ɡ/ grad ('castle')
H (h) /x/ híša ('house')
I (i) /i/ iméti ('to have')
J (j) /j/ jábolko ('apple')
K (k) /k/ kmèt ('peasant')
L (l) /l/ ljubézen ('love')
M (m) /m/ mísliti ('to think')
N (n) /n/ novíce ('news')
O (o) /ɔ/, /o/ ôkno ('window'), ópica ('monkey) ,
P (p) /p/ pomóč ('help')
R (r) /r/ riž ('rice')
S (s) /s/ svét ('world')
Š (š) /ʃ/ šóla ('school')
T (t) /t/ tip ('type')
U (u) /u/ ùlica ('street')
V (v) /ʋ/ vôda ('water')
Z (z) /z/ zrélo ('mature')
Ž (ž) /ʒ/ življênje ('life')

Read more about this topic:  Slovene Language

Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or system:

    I cannot express the pleasure I have in writing down my thoughts [in her journal], at the very moment—my opinion of people when I first see them, and how I alter, or how confirm myself in it—and I am much deceived in my foresight, if I shall not have very great delight in reading this living proof of my manner of passing my time, my sentiments, my thoughts of people I know, and a thousand other things in future.
    Frances Burney (1752–1840)

    In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)