Slovene dialects

In a purely dialectological sense, Slovene dialects (Slovene: slovenska narečja [sloʋènska narét͡ʃja], Serbo-Croatian: slovenska narječja [slǒʋeːnskaː nǎːrjeːt͡ʃja]) are the regionally diverse varieties that evolved from old Slovene, a South Slavic language of which the standardized modern version is Standard Slovene. This also includes several dialects in Croatia, most notably the so-called Western Goran dialect, which is actually Kostel dialect. In reality, speakers in Croatia self-identify themselves as speaking Croatian, which is a result of a ten centuries old country border passing through the dialects since the Francia. In addition, two dialects situated in Slovene (and the speakers self identify as speaking Slovene) did not evolve from Slovene (left out in the map on the right). The Čičarija dialect is a Chakavian dialect and parts of White Carniola were populated by Serbs during the Turkish invasion and therefore Shtokavian is spoken there.

Spoken Slovene is often considered to have at least 48 dialects (narečja) and 13 subdialects (podnarečja). The exact number of dialects is open to debate, ranging from as many as 50 to merely 7. According to the official chart, published by the Fran Ramovš Institute, there are 48 dialects and 13 subdialects, but that includes all dialects spoken in Slovene. Čičarija dialect is included as a separate dialect and Shtokavian in White Carniola is merged with South White Carniolan. However, the official chart was not updated to include Čabar dialect, which was only recently been discovered to have evolved differently than Kostel dialect, under which it was traditionally listed. Therefore, that division includes 48 dialects and 13 subdialects.

The various dialects are so different from each other that a speaker of one dialect may have a very difficult time understanding a speaker of another, particularly if they belong to different regional groups. Speakers of dialects that strongly differ accommodate each other by gravitating toward standard Slovene. The only exception to that is the Resian dialect, which is the most isolated dialect, and on top of that, the speakers were never able to attend Slovene schools and are therefore completely unfamiliar with Standard Slovene.

Slovene dialects are part of the South Slavic dialect continuum, transitioning into Croatian Kajkavian dialect to the southeast and Chakavian dialect to the southwest, but also bordering Friulian and Italian to the west, German to the north, and Hungarian to the northeast. The dialects are spoken primarily in Slovenia, but are extending in all neighboring countries Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Hungary.

Primož Trubar, the author of the first Slovene book has already been aware of the wide diversity among the Slovene speakers and has written that some speakers might have a hard time understanding the book. First attempt to classify the dialects was made in 1809 by Jernej Kopitar, writing about two dialects in his Grammatik der slavischen Sprache in Krain, Kärnten und Steyermark. He split the dialects into two groups depending if their pronunciation of *ła is wa or la. Fran Miklosich similarly split the language in two dialects, but focusing on the pronunciation of Proto-Slavic ě. In the western dialect, it is pronounced ie and ei̯ in the eastern. Vatroslav Oblak split the two dialects by the evolution of long *ъ and *ь, which divided Slovene into the southwestern dialect where they evolved to a and northeastern dialect where they evolved to e. This division was completely contradictory to Miklosich's one, so a conclusion that not enough data was gathered was reached.

Karel Glaser has made further divisions in 1898, dividing the varieties into the southeastern and northwestern dialect group, which were then subdivided into the Hungarian (now known as Panonian), Kajkavian (which he considered to be a Slovene dialect), other Styrian, Carinthian, Upper Carniolan, Lower Carniolan, Karst-Littoral, and Venetian dialects (now joined together as the Littoral dialect group) and was thus the first more serious attempt to classify the dialects.

Other attempts to classify the language were made by Izmail Sreznevsky in the early 19th century, followed by Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay (focusing on Resia, Venetian Slovenia, Cerkno, and Bled), Karel Štrekelj (focusing on the Karst), and Ivan Scheinig (focusing on Carinthia). This was followed by efforts by Ivan Grafenauer (Gail Valley), Josip Tominšek (Savinja Valley), and others.

Efforts before the Second World War were spearheaded by Lucien Tesnière, Fran Ramovš (which added the Rovte dialect group), and Aleksander Isachenko, and after the war by Tine Logar and Jakob Rigler (sl), which both made vital corrections to the Ramovš division. Eventually, the classification proposed by Ramovš was accepted with corrections and additions by Logar and Rigler, published in 1983 as the Karta slovenskih narečij (Map of Slovenian Dialects).