The Slovenian Alphabet: 25 Letters Made Easy!

Looking for a great place to start learning the Slovenian alphabet vocabulary? Congratulations, you are at the right place! In today’s post, we will walk you through the abeceda or the Slovenian alphabet which can definitely help you appreciate the Slovenian Language in a better way. Here, we are going to teach you how to read and write the Slovenian alphabet with the help of a few words which can increase your vocabulary. If that sits well with you, then let the learning begin!

The official language or standard language of Slovenia is called Slovenian. It is a south Slavic language spoken by Slovene people being their official regional language. There are 25 Slovenian alphabets used in the Slovenian. These are written in a fashion similar to the other European languages with some exceptions e.g on the characters č š and ž. The writing text in Slovenian is from left to right. It is one of the Slavic languages spoken by almost 2.3 million people and thus the language can have various regional varieties which are closely related.

The Slovenian Alphabet

The Slovene alphabet used by Slovene people to write Slovenian is “Slovenska abeceda” which literally translates to “alphabets” in English. The Slovene alphabets are an extension of Latin script since they are following Latin letters. There are various other European languages that also use the modified Latin alphabet. Slovene alphabets, despite being written like English alphabets, have slightly different pronunciations.

Having know-how of other Latin languages can make the process of learning Slovenian easy. However, if you speak one of the non-Latin languages as a native speaker then this language might be slightly hard for you to learn. If you are not a native speaker or are not familiar with the official language of Slovenia, then don’t worry, we got you covered!

Let’s start with learning the Slovenian alphabet.

The foreign alphabets might look a bit scary to you but keep reading and you will find them fairly easy. Here is an easy table for you to get a better idea about the Slovenian alphabets;

There are 25 letters in the Slovenian alphabet. These letters are

A, a, B, b, C, c, Č, č, D, d, E, e, F, f, G, g, H, h, I, i, J, j, K, k, L, l, M, m, N, n, O, o, P, p, R, r, S, s, Š, š, T, t, U, u, V, v, Z, z, Ž, ž

Like the other foreign alphabets, the Slovenian alphabet is divided into its consonants and vowels.

Consonants

There are twenty consonants in the Slovenian alphabet. Mostly the alphabets are written in a fashion similar to the other alphabets in English with some exceptions including the use of additional accentual marks on č š and ž. The Cyrillic characters are often incorporated in various written languages e.g Ж refers to ž in Latin languages.

There are certain letters that have different pronunciations as well for instance the letters č š and ž. č š are the two consonants in which the additional accentuated mark can serve as the role of h in English. E.g. č and š are be pronounced as ch and sh.

Voiced And Unvoiced

In Slovenian alphabets, b, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v, z, ž are the voiced consonants while c, č, f, h, k, p, s, š, t are the unvoiced consonants. Most of the letters in the Slovenian language sound similar to the English alphabet, however, some are different. Following are some letters that sound really different from English alphabets.

C, c

The letter C, c has pronunciation /ts/ which is “ts” as in goat’s dung.

Example: Copata (Slipper)

Č, č

The letter Č, č has pronunciation /tʃ/ which is “ch” as in chocolate.

Example: Čokolada (Chocolate)

J, j

The letter J, j has pronunciation /j/ which is “y” as in you.

Example: Jogurt (Yogurt)

R, r

Slovene r is different from the r in other languages. Alphabet r in Slovenian needs to be trilled/ slightly rolled to pronounce. If you are familiar with Spanish r then this must be fairly easy for you. You can use the tiger method and try saying “grr” to practice rolling your r. It needs to be pronounced strongly if you want to sound like a native speaker.

The letter R, r has pronunciation /r/ which is “r” as in grr.

Example: Raca (Duck)

Š, š

The letter Š, š has pronunciation /ʃ/ which is “sh” as in shine.

Example: Šola (School)

V, v

The letter V, v has pronunciation /v/, /w/ which is “w” as in warm.

Example: Vreme (Weather)

Ž, ž

The letter Ž, ž has pronunciation /ʒ/ which is “s” as in the word vision.

Example: Žoga (Yoga)

Vowels

There are five vowels in Slovene alphabets i.e a, e, i, o, u. Following are the sounds of each in the Slovenian alphabet.

A, a

The letter A has pronunciation /a/ which is “a” as in arm. Example: Abeceda (Alphabets)

E, e

The letter e has three different pronunciations. It /ɛ/, /e/, /ə/ as in red, neigh, assert.

Example: Elektrika (Electricity)

I, i

The letter I, i has the pronunciation /i/ which is “ee” as in flee.

Example: Irska (Ireland).

O, o

The letter O, o has the pronunciation /ɔ/ which is “o” as in void and, /o/ which is “o” as in foe.

Example: Obala (Coast)

U, u

The letter U, u has the pronunciation /u/ which is “oo” as in the word soothe.

Example: Ura (Clock/ time)

Tip Of The Day

In Slovenian culture, it is a nice gesture to bring a gift while visiting a friend. So the next time you go visit your Slovenian Prijatelj (Friend), make sure to bring a nice Darilo (Gift) with you e.g. Čokolada (Chocolate). That’s it for today. Make sure to practice a great deal of writing the alphabet and learn the words so that you can get a step ahead of other learners.

Slovenia is one of the 20 Slavic languages which is spoken in many countries and it is the standard language of Slovenia. If you are interested in learning similar words or more foreign words in Slovenian Languages or any other Slavic languages, then make sure to visit Ling app by Simya Solutions. In addition, be sure not to miss out on our previous posts like the country names in the Slovenian language and how to greet a happy birthday.