Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect or Eastern Slovene (; ; Prekmurje Slovene: prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina), is the language of Prekmurje in Eastern Slovenia, and a variety of the Slovene language. As a part of the Pannonian dialect group,Logar, Tine. 1996. Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave. Ljubljana: SAZU, p. 240. it is spoken in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia and by the Hungarian Slovenes in the Vas County in western Hungary. It is used in private communication, liturgy and publications by authors from Prekmurje as well as in television, radio and newspapers.RTV SLO: Nova radijska igra Bratonski pil v prekmurščiniPrekmurščina: Dnejvi so minejvali pa nika takšoga se nej zgoudilo (Dnevnik)Prekmurci in prekmurščina (Prekmursko društvo General Maister)NE SPREGLEJTE! Na TV IDEA nova oddaja TIJ SAMO GUČI z gostiteljem Mišem Kontrecem (Sobotainfo) It is closely related to other Slovene dialects in neighboring Slovene Styria as well as to Kajkavian with which it is mutually intelligible to a considerable degree, and forms a dialect continuum with other South Slavic languages.
Prekmurje Slovene is part of the Pannonian dialect group (Slovene: ), which is also known as the eastern Slovene dialect group (). Prekmurje Slovene shares many common features with the dialects of Haloze, Slovenske Gorice, and Prlekija, with which it is completely mutually intelligible. It is also closely related to the Kajkavian dialects of Croatian, although mutual comprehension is difficult. Prekmurje Slovene, especially its more traditional version spoken by the Hungarian Slovenes, is not readily understood by speakers from central and western Slovenia, whereas speakers from eastern Slovenia (Lower Styria) have much less difficulty understanding it. The early 20th-century philologist Ágoston Pável stated that Prekmurje Slovene is actually a major, independent dialect of Slovene, from which it differs mostly in the aspects of stress, intonation, the softening of consonants and—as a result of the lack of linguistic reform—in the striking dearth of modern vocabulary and that it has preserved many older features from Proto-Slavic.
Geographical distribution Prekmurje Slovene is spoken by approximately 110,000 speakers worldwide.Damir Josipovič: Prekmurje in prekmurščina (Anali PAZU - Letnik 2, leto 2012, številka 2) of which 80,000 in Prekmurje, 20,000 throughout in Slovenia (especially in Maribor and Ljubljana) and 10,000 in other countries. In Hungary, it is used by the Slovene-speaking minority in the Vas County in and around the town of Szentgotthárd. Other speakers of the dialect live in other Hungarian towns, particularly Budapest, Szombathely, Bakony, and Mosonmagyaróvár. The dialect was also spoken in Somogy (especially in the village of Tarany), but it has nearly disappeared in the last two centuries. There are some speakers in Austria, Germany, the United States, and Argentina.
Status
Prekmurje Slovene has a defined territory and body of literature, and it is one of the few Slovene dialects in Slovenia that are still spoken by all strata of the local population. Some speakers have claimed that it is a separate language. Prominent writers in Prekmurje Slovene, such as Miklós Küzmics, István Küzmics, Ágoston Pável, József Klekl Senior, and József Szakovics, have claimed that it is a language, not simply a dialect. Evald Flisar, a writer, poet, and playwright from Prekmurje (Goričko), states that people from Prekmurje "talk in our own language". It also has a written standard and literary tradition, both of which were largely neglected after World War II. There were attempts to publish in it more broadely in the 1990s, primarily in Hungary,Slovenski koledar (1992) , 98. p. and there has been a revival of literature in Prekmurje Slovene since the late 1990s.
Others consider Prekmurje Slovene a regional language, without denying that it is part of Slovene. The linguist Janko Dular has characterized Prekmurje Slovene as a "local standard language" for historical reasons, followed by the Prekmurje writer Feri Lainšček. However, Prekmurje Slovene is not recognized as a language in Slovenia or Hungary, nor does it enjoy any legal protection under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In 2016, the General Maister Society (Društvo General Maister) proposed that primary schools offer education in the Prekmurje Slovene.Nekaj manjka v naših šolah ... To je prekmurščina!Prekmurščina kot predmet v osnovnih in srednjih šolah? (sobotainfo.com) Some regional politicians and intellectuals advocate Prekmurje Slovene.Spoznaj nosilca enote Ptuj: Rolando Benjamin Vaz Ferreira (piratskastranka.si)
Alongside Resian, Prekmurje Slovene is the only Slovene dialect with a literary standard that has had a different historical development than the rest of the Slovene ethnic territory. For centuries, it has been used as a language of education as well as in the press and liturgy. The historical Hungarian name for the Slovenes living within the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary (as well as for the Slovenes in general) was Vendek, or the Wends. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Prekmurje authors used to designate this language variety as sztári szlovenszki jezik 'old Slovene'. Both then and now, it is also referred to as the "Slovene language between the Mura and Raba" (Slovenščina med Muro in Rabo; Slovenski jezik med Mürov i Rábov).
Prekmurje Slovene is widely used in the regional media (Murski Val Radio, Porabje, Slovenski utrinki), films, literature. The youth write SMS messages and web comments in their local tongue. In Prekmurje and Hungary, several streets, shops, hotels, etc. bear Prekmurje Slovene names.Lovenjakov Dvor - Hotel Štrk In the 2012 protests in Slovenia in Murska Sobota, the protesters used Prekmurje Slovene banners. It is the liturgical language in the Lutheran and Pentecostal churches and in the Catholic Church of Hungarian Slovenes. Marko Jesenšek, a professor at the University of Maribor, has stated that the functionality of Prekmurje Slovene is limited, but "it lives on in poetry and journalism."
Scholars in modern linguistics, dialectology and other fields consistently use the term prekmurščina, denoting it as a language. The Slovene affix -ščina signifies a language (e.g. nemščina 'German'), dialect (e.g., celjščina 'Celje dialect'), or manner of speaking (e.g. latovščina 'jargon').
Name In 1988, Slovene English-language specialist Stanko Klinar ascertained that it is grammatically correct to use the name Prekmurian (alongside forms like Ljubljanian and Mariboran).
The name Prekmurian first appeared in a scientific publication in 1977. Previous scientific texts in the 1990s and 2000s mostly used the terms Prekmurje Slovene, Prekmurje language, Prekmurje dialect etc. (e.g. Greenberg). Nowadays, the most popular term in scientific texts is Prekmurian.
Dialects Prekmurje Slovene is used as: The dialect of the hilly Goričko, in northern Prekmurje, particularly in the villages of Grad, Gornji Petrovci, Križevci, Kuzma, Kuzma, Rogašovci, Šalovci, and Mačkovci. The Raba March (Porabje) subdialect in Hungary, a variety of the Goričko dialect. The dialect of the lowland Ravensko in Central Prekmurje, particularly in the villages of Puconci, Cankova, Bogojina, Bakovci, Tišina, Petanjci, Moravske Toplice, and Rakičan. The Murska Sobota subdialect, i.e. the speech of the town of Murska Sobota; it is a variety of the Ravensko dialect. The Dolinsko subdialect in South Prekmurje, particularly in the villages of Beltinci, Bratonci, Črenšovci, Velika Polana, Turnišče, Žižki, Renkovci, Bistrica (Dolnja, Gornja and Srednja). It is also named the Marko (markovsko or markasto) dialect due to the prevalence of the personal name Marko (Mark) in the past.
History Early history The Prekmurje Slovene developed from the language of the Carantanian Slavs who settled around Balaton in the 9th century. Due to the political and geographical separation from other Slovene dialects (unlike most of the contemporary Slovenia, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, Prekmurje was under the authority of the Kingdom of Hungary for almost a thousand years), the Prekmurje Slovene acquired many specific features. Separated from the cultural development of the remainder of ethnic Slovene territory, the Slovenes in Hungary gradually forged their own specific culture and also their own literary language.
in the 16th and 17th centuries, a few Slovene Protestant pastors fled from Carniola and Styria to Hungary. They brought along the Bible of Jurij Dalmatin, which was used in Felsőszölnök. and Postil of Primož Trubar, which was used in Gornji Petrovci. The Hungarian Slovenes found it difficult to understand the language of these books.
By the 16th century, a theory linking the Hungarian Slovenes to the ancient Vandals became popular. Accordingly, Prekmurje Slovene was frequently designated in Hungarian Latin documents as the Vandalian language (Latin: lingua vandalica, Hungarian: Vandál nyelv).
For a long time, the circumstances of the two-tier development of the Slovene language was ignored in Slovenian linguistics and science. The current form of the standard Slovene language only developed in the 19th century. Prior to this, the Slovene language norm was twofold: the Central Slovene language (mostly in Carniola) and the Eastern Slovene language (in Styria and Hungary).
For a brief period, there were also two variants of the Eastern Slovene language: the Prekmurje Slovene and the Eastern Styrian Slovene (in the regions of Ormož, Ljutomer and Lenart of Slovene Hills).
The literary traditions of the Prekmurje Slovene developed during the Protestant Reformation: mostly manuscript hymnals with religious hymns, psalms from the 16th and 17th century, and a contract from 1643. The standard language emerged at the beginning of the 18th century and developed slowly. The standard Prekmurje Slovene followed homogeneous grammatical rules and phonetic characteristics. An example of this is the use of the wovels ö or ü and diphthongs in writing.
Manuscripts were also written in the Eastern Styrian Slovene language. Printed books in this language were also published. However, there were no homogeneous grammatical or phonologycal forms in this language variant. Styrian Slovene authors had thoroughly different ideas about the standard language. The Styrian Slovene literary language eventually ceased to exist and was replaced by the Central Slovene language.
18th century The first book in the Prekmurje Slovene appeared in 1715 and was written by the Lutheran pastor Ferenc Temlin. The most important authors from this period were the Lutheran pastor István Küzmics and the Roman Catholic priest Miklós Küzmics who set the standard for the Prekmurje regional standard language in the 18th century.
István translated the entire New Testament into Prekmurje Slovene (Nouvi Zákon 1771). István was born in Ravensko (lowland) and based his standard language on the Ravensko dialect of Prekmurje Slovene, just like it was used in old regional manuscripts. He also expanded the language with elements from the Goričko (highland) dialect.
Miklós Küzmics was born in Goričko but he followed István's language scheme. He adopted further elements from the Goričko and Dolinsko dialects. Miklós wrote several books, which were reprinted in the 20th century. His prayer book (Kniga molitvena, 1783) became very popular. His text and coursebook (ABC Kni'sicza, 1790) was used for decades in Slovene schools.
Important standardization work in Prekmurje Lutheran literature was also performed by István Szijjártó and Mihály Bakos.
Versus Vandalici, the first literary poem in the Prekmurje Slovene, was written in 1774.
19th century