Slovenian Language

Writing System

This alphabet (abeceda) was derived in the mid 1840s from an arrangement of the Croatian national reviver and leader Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872) for Croatians (alphabet called gajica or Croatian gajica, patterned on the Czech pattern of the 1830s). Before that /ʃ/ was, for example, written as <ʃ>, <ʃʃ> or <ſ>, /ʃ/ as <TʃCH>, <CZ>, <TʃCZ> or <TCZ>, /i/ sometimes as <Y> as a relic from now modern Russian 'yeri' (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 other signs, except, for instance, additional accentual marks, 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. For example:

    * gòl (naked) | gól (goal),
* jêsen (ash (tree)) | jesén (autumn),
* kót (angle, corner) | kot (as, like),
* med (between) | méd (honey),
* polovíca (half (of)) | pôl (expresses a half an hour before the given hour | pól (pole, as in northern pole),
* prècej (at once, archaic) | precéj (a great deal (of))),

letter     phoneme          phones             first letter in a word       word pronunciation
A (a)    /a/        [ɑ, (ʌ)]             abecéda (="alphabet") [abɛtsed̪a]
B (b)    /b/        [b, (p)]             beséda (="word")         [bɛsed̪a]
C (c)    /ts/        [ts, (dz)]           cvét (="bloom")            [t̪sʋet̪]
Č (č)    /tʃ/       [tʃ, (dʒ)]           časopís (="newspaper")            [tʃasɔpis]
D (d)    /d/        [d̪, (t̪)] dánes (="today")           [d̪anəs]
E (e)     /e/        [e]        sédem (="seven" or "I sit down")           [sedəm]
F (f)     /f/         [f, (v)] fànt (="boy")     [fan̪t̪]
G (g)    /g/        [g, (k)]             grad (="castle")             [grad]
H (h)    /h/        [x, (ɣ)]             híša (="house")             [xiʃa]
I (i)       /i/         [i]         iméti (="to have")          [imeti]
J (j)      /j/         [j]         jábolko (="apple")        [jabɔlkɔ]
K (k)    /k/        [k, (g)]             kmèt (="peasant")         [kmɛt̪]
L (l)      /l/         [l, u, u̯]             ljubézèn (="love")         [ljubezɛn]
M (m) /m/       [m, ɱ]             mísliti (="to think")        [mislit̪i]
N (n)    /n/        [n̪, ŋ]    novíce (="news")          [nɔʋitsɛ]
O (o)    /o/        [ɔ]        oblák (="cloud")           [ɔblak]
P (p)    /p/        [p, (b)]             pomóč (="help")           [pɔmoʧ]
R (r)     /r/         [ɾ, ɾ̩, r̩]             rokenrol (="rock'n'roll")            [rɔkenrɔl]
S (s)     /s/         [s, (z)] svét (="world")             [sʋet]
Š (š)     /ʃ/        [ʃ, (ʒ)] šóla (="school")            [ʃola]
T (t)     /t/         [t̪, (d̪)] tip (="type")      [t̪ip]
U (u)    /u/        [u]        ulica (="street")             [ulit̪sa]
V (v)    /ʋ/        [ʋ, u, ṷ, w, u̥]   vôda (="water")            [ʋɔda]
Z (z)     /z/         [z, (s)] zrélo (="mature")          [zrelo]