Slovenia Languages

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Slovenia

Languages

Introduction

Materials used in Slovenian research can be written in German, Slovene, Latin, Hungarian, or Italian. Early records are in Latin, later records until 1800 in German, and then in Slovene. Slovene is a south Slavic language closely related to Croatian. Some records in the western part are in Italian and some recorsd in the eastern part are in Hungarian. You do not need to know all these languages to do research in Slovenian records. You will, however, need to know some key words and phrases in Slovene, German, and Latin for most of the country.

For word lists and help researching in Slovenian records, see:

• German Genealogical Word List
• Hungarian Genealogical Word List
• Latin Genealogical Word List
• Italian Genealogical Word List

Research Strategy

Here are some language tips when doing research in Slovenia:

• Good genealogical word lists in English, Slovene, German, and Latin are found in the appendices to Moj rodovnik : priročnik za raziskovanje rodu by Vasja Butina (FHL 949.73 D27b).
• Archival finding aids are written in Slovene.
• Census records (1880-1890) for Novo Mesto are written mostly in Slovene although the columns are dual language—both German and Slovene. When recording a family of German heritage that entry would be written in German using the Fraktur script. All other entries were written in Slovene using Latin script.
• You will only find Hungarian in the eastern edges of Slovenia next to Hungary.

For instance, the records at the Family History Library for Murska Sobota include Muster rolls in Hungarian, Jewish Records in German and Hungarian, civil registration in Hungarian, and Roman Catholic parish registers in Latin and Hungarian.

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)