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SLOVENES [Slovenci, Ger. Winden, to b...

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 246 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SLOVENES [Slovenci, Ger. Winden, to be distinguished from the See also:Slovaks (q.v.) and from the Slovinci (see See also:KASHUBES) See also:west of See also:Danzig] , a See also:Slavonic See also:people numbering about 1,300,000. The See also:chief See also:mass of them lives in See also:Austria, occupying See also:Carniola (Krajina, Krain), the See also:southern See also:half of See also:Carinthia (Chorutania, Korosko, Karnten) and See also:Styria (Stajersko, Steiermark) and some of the See also:northern See also:part of See also:Istria; a small See also:division of them is found over the See also:Italian border in the vale of Resia; others in the extreme See also:south-west of See also:Hungary. Their neighbours on the south-west are Italians, on the west and See also:north Germans: See also:history and See also:place-names point to Slovenes having formerly held parts of See also:Tirol, See also:Salzburg and Austria Proper; and on the See also:east they have given up south-west Hungary to the See also:Magyars; to the south they have the kindred See also:race of the Croats. The boundary on this See also:side is difficult to See also:fix, as the transition is See also:gradual and a certain See also:dialect of Croatian (marked by the use of kaj = " what ") is by some considered to have been originally Slovene (see CROATIA-SLAVONIA). Even within the limits above defined the Slovenes are much mixed with Germans, especially in the towns; only in Carniola are they fairly solid. Here they See also:call themselves Krajinci rather than Slovenes, in fact everywhere the See also:general See also:term gives place to See also:local names, because the race is so much split up geographically, dialectically and politically that consciousness of unity is of rather See also:recent growth. The See also:main intellectual centre has been See also:Laibach (Ljubljana) and next to it See also:Klagenfurt (Celovec); in See also:Graz (Gradec) the See also:German See also:element, and in See also:GOrz (Gorica) the Italian, predominates. The Slovenes arrived in these parts in the 7th See also:century, apparently pressed westwards by the See also:Avars. By A.D. 595 they were already at See also:war with the Bavarians, later they formed part of Samo's See also:great Slavonic See also:empire and were not quite. out of See also:touch with other Slays. On its collapse they See also:fell under the yoke of the Bavarians and See also:Franks.

At first they had their own princes, but in See also:

time these gave place to German See also:dukes and margraves, who had, however, to use the native See also:tongue on certain occasions. These fiefs of the empire finally fell to the Habsburgs and never gave them any trouble, hence their See also:language has had freer See also:play than that of most of the See also:Austrian Slays: they have been allowed to use it in See also:primary and secondary See also:schools and to some extent in local See also:administration. The Slovenes were very See also:early (beginning with the 8th century) Christianized by Italian and German missionaries; to them we owe the Freisingen fragments, confessions and part of a See also:sermon, the earliest monuments, not merely of Slovene but of any Slavonic. The MS. See also:dates from c. r000, but the See also:composition is older. The language is not pure Slovene, but seems to be an See also:adaptation of an Old Slavonic See also:translation. Yet it is enough to show that Old Slavonic is not Old Slovene. Kocel, a See also:prince on the Platten See, to whom See also:Cyril and See also:Methodius (see See also:SLAVS) preached on their way to See also:Rome, was probably a Slovene, but no traces of their See also:work survive in this See also:quarter. Except for a few 15th-century prayers and formulae we do not find any more specimens of Slovene until the See also:Reformation, when See also:Primus Truber translated a See also:catechism, the New Testament and other See also:works (See also:Tubingen, 1550-1582), and J. Dalmatin issued a splendid See also:Bible (Wittemberg, 1584), with an interesting vocabulary to make his work intelligible to any Slovene or Croat: at the same time and place A. Bohorizh (zh=c) issued a See also:good See also:grammar (Arclicae HHorulae, &c.). To counteract this the See also:Roman Catholics translated the work of their See also:English apologist Stapleton, but their final policy was to See also:burn all the Slovene books they could find, so that these are extremely rare. The policy was successful and only about 15% of the Slovenes are Protestants.

Slovene woke to a new See also:

life in the latter part of the 18th century. Valentin Vodnik was the first poet (see See also:Arch. f. Slay. Phil. (1901), See also:xxiii. 386, See also:xxiv. 74), but his successor See also:France Preseren (1800-1849) appears to have been really great, worthy of a larger circle of readers. Other poets have been A. Janezic, S. Gregoreic and Murn-Aleksandrov; Erjavec was a See also:story-See also:teller, Jurcic a novelist, but as usual with these beginnings of literature the same See also:man may make a grammar, issue an almanack, and try all kinds of See also:poetry. The two great Slavists Kopitar and See also:Miklosich were Slovenes, but were led astray by race feeling to insist upon Old Slavonic being Old Slovene. They were succeeded by G.

Krek and V. Oblak. The chief centres of Slovene letters are the Matica or Linguistic and See also:

Literary Society and the See also:Lyceum at Laibach. The Matica publishes a See also:chronicle (Letopis) and there are many See also:periodicals, chief of which are the Ljubljansky Zvon and Kres, the latter published at Klagenfurt. The liberal and clerical See also:organs carry on a lively polemic. The Slovene language is the most See also:westerly of the South Slavonic See also:group. It is very closely allied to Serbo-Croatian, but shows some points of resemblance to tech (retaining dl and El, loss of See also:aorist, &c). It is split into eight dialects which differ among themselves widely. the people of Resia are sometimes classed quite apart. In See also:phonetics Slovene is remarkable for the See also:change of the See also:original tj dj into i; and j (our y) respectively, of i into u, and for the coincidence of the old half vowels I and a in a dull e. In See also:morphology it has retained the dual of both nouns and verbs more perfectly than any other living language, also the supine and several periphrastic tenses: it has lost its aorist and imperfect, and its participles have mostly been fixed as so-called gerunds or verbal adverbs. The language has suffered much from Germanisms and even See also:developed an See also:article which has since been purified away. There is a See also:free See also:accent and the accented syllables may be See also:long or See also:short.

The Resia dialect has preserved the Proto-Slavonic accent very exactly. The Slovenes have always used the Latin See also:

alphabet more or less clumsily: recently the See also:orthography has been reformed after the manner of Cech, but uniformity has not yet been reached. BIBLIOGRAPHY.—J. Duman, " See also:Die Slovenen " in Die Volker .. BIBLIOGRAPHY.—J. vol. x. (See also:Vienna, 1881); J. Sket, Sloaenisches Sprach- and Ubungsbuch (Klagenfurt, 1888); Slovenska Slovstvena Citanka (" Slovene literary See also:reading-See also:book ") (2nd ed., 1906); C. Peenik, Praktisches Lehrbuch der slovenischen Sprache (See also:Leipzig, 189o); M. Pletersnik, Slovensko-Nemlki Slovar (Si. Ger. See also:Diet.) (Laibach, 1894–1895); Freisingen Fragments, best ed. V.

Vondrak, Oech Akad., pt. iii. (See also:

Prague, 1896) ; V. Oblak, many articles on S1. Grammar in Archiv f. slay. Philologie (1889 sqq.); J. Baudouin de See also:Courtenay, Opyt foneliki Rezjanskich Govorov (" See also:Attempt at phonetics of the dialects of Resia," See also:Russian) (See also:Warsaw, 1895); K. ;trekelj, Slovenske narodne Pesmi Slovene popular songs ") (Laibach, 1895 sqq.). (E. H.

End of Article: SLOVENES [Slovenci, Ger. Winden, to be distinguished from the Slovaks (q.v.) and from the Slovinci (see KASHUBES) west of Danzig]

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