The Italian language

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 is an officially recognized minority language

Minority language

A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...

 in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

, along with Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

. Around 3,700 Slovenian citizens speak Italian as their mother tongue. Italian has a strong presence in Slovenia, both historical and current. An estimated 15% of Slovenians speak Italian as a second language

Second language

A second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....

, which is one of the highest percentages in the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

.

Geographic Distribution and Population

Italian is co-official with Slovene in three municipalities in the Slovenian portion of Istria

Istria

Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...

: Piran

Piran

Piran is a city and municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. The city resembles a large open-air museum, with medieval architecture and a rich cultural heritage. Narrow streets and compact houses give...

 , Koper  and Izola

Izola

Izola is an old fishing city and a municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Adriatic coast of the Istrian peninsula. Its name originates from the Italian Isola, which means island.- History :...

 . The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 in the country (0.11% of the total population). However, 3,762 people (0.2% of the total population and a slight dip from the number in the 1991 census) reported themselves to be mother tongue speakers of the language, of whom 1,832 declared themselves as being ethnic Italian, 1,195 as ethnic Slovenes, 34 as Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

, and 37 belonged to an ethnicity that was not listed.

Of the total 3,762 Italian native speakers in Slovenia, 2,853 live in one of the three municipalities where it is co-official: 1,174 in Piran, 1,059 in Koper, and 620 in Izola. Around 15% of all Slovenians speak Italian as a second language, which is the highest percentage in the European Union after Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

. An estimated 5% of Slovenians use Italian in their daily life, which is the highest percentage in the European Union outside Italy. The vast majority of those live in the Slovenian Littoral

Slovenian Littoral

The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....

, where daily economic and personal contacts with neighboring Italy are common.

Usage of Italian

According to the Slovenian constitution, the Italian language is co-official in the areas of Slovenian Istria

Slovenian Istria

Slovenian Istria often called Obala in Slovene is a region in southwest of Slovenia. It comprises the northern part of the Istrian peninsula, and it is part of the wider geographical-historical region known as the Slovenian Littoral . Its largest urban center is Koper. Other larger settlements...

 where the Italian people have been traditionally present as an autochthonous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 population. According to law, all official signs are to be written in both languages, as should all public notifications. Italian is to be used in all public offices in the bilingual area. Beside Slovene language schools, there are also elementary, high and grammar schools with Italian as the language of instruction. At the state-owned University of Primorska

University of Primorska

University of Primorska is the third university in Slovenia. It is located in Koper, Izola, and Portorož and is named for the Slovenian Littoral region , where it is located.-History:The very first efforts to found a university in the Littoral were made almost one hundred years ago,...

, however, which is also established in the bilingual area, Slovene is the only language of instruction (although the official name of the University includes the Italian version, too).

Italian can be used in the municipal assembleys of Koper, Izola and Piran, although in practice almost all discussions are carried out in Slovene.