Prekmurje dialect
Encyclopedia
Prekmurian, also known as the Pannonian-Slovene, East-Slovene, or Wendish
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...

 , is the easternmost separate dialect of Slovene, spoken in the Prekmurje
Prekmurje
Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

 region of 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...

 and by the Hungarian Slovenes
Hungarian Slovenes
Hungarian Slovenes are an autochthonous ethnic and linguistic Slovene minority living in Hungary. The largest groups are the Rába Slovenes in the Rába Valley in western Hungary between the town of Szentgotthárd and the borders with Slovenia and Austria. They speak the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene...

 in Vas county in western Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. It is closely related to the Slovene dialects in neighboring Slovene Styria, as well as to the Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian dialect
The Kajkavian dialect is one of the three main dialects of Croatian. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Čakavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Kajkavian is kaj....

 of Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

.

Prekmurian is one of the few Slovene dialects in Slovenia that is still spoken by all strata of the local population. It also had its own written standard and a literary tradition, both of which were largely neglected after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. There are divergent opinions regarding the status of Prekmurian. Some consider Prekmurian a regional language
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area....

, without denying that it is part of Slovene. However, Prekmurian is not recognized as a language by Slovenia or Hungary, nor does it enjoy any legal protection under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe...

. There is no significant political or cultural movement in Slovenia seeking legal protection for Prekmurian, although there has been a revival of literature in Prekmurian since the late 1990s. Some Slovene writers from Prekmurje, most notably Feri Lainšček
Feri Lainšcek
Feri Lainšček is a Slovenian writer, poet, and screenwriter.-Early life:He was born as Franc Lainšček in a Slovene Lutheran family in the village of Dolenci, near Šalovci, in north-eastern Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He studied journalism at the University...

, regard Prekmurian as a regional language.

Together with Resian, Prekmurian language is the only Slovene dialect with a literary standard that has had a different historical development from the rest of Slovene ethnic territory. For centuries, it was used as a language of religious education, as well as in the press and mass. The historical 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....

 name for the Slovenes living within the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 (as well as for the Slovenians in general) was Vendek, or the Wends. In the 18th and 19th centuries Prekmurian authors used to designate this dialect 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),

Range

The Prekmurian dialect is spoken by approximately 80,000 speakers worldwide. Most of them reside in Prekmurje
Prekmurje
Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

, the easternmost region of Slovenia, where the dialect is used as the native language by the majority of the population. In Hungary, it is used by the Slovene-speaking minority in Vas county in and around the town of Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border, and is home to much of Hungary's small Slovene ethnic minority....

. Several speakers of the dialect live in other Hungarian towns, particularly Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

, Bakony
Bakony
Bakony is a mountainous region in Transdanubia, Hungary. It forms the largest part of the Transdanubian Mountains. It is located north of Lake Balaton and lies almost entirely in Veszprém county....

, and Mosonmagyaróvár
Mosonmagyaróvár
Mosonmagyaróvár is a city in Győr-Moson-Sopron county in northwestern Hungary. It lies close to both the Austrian and Slovakian borders and has a population of 30,200 ....

. Traditionally, the dialect was also used in the Hungarian Slovene colony in Somogy (most notably in the village of Tarany
Tarany
Tarany is a village in Somogy county, Hungary. It is one of the villages in which some traditions of the Somogy Slovenes have survived.- External links :*...

), but it has nearly disappeared in the last two centuries.

There are some speakers in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, as well as in major towns in Slovenia, especially Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

 and Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

, where significant immigrant communities from Prekmurje have settled.

Linguistic features

In the opinion of the early 20th century philologist Ágoston Pável
Ágoston Pável
Ágoston Pável, also known in Slovenian as Avgust Pavel was a Hungarian Slovene writer, poet, ethnologist, linguist and historian....

, the "Wendish (Prekmurian) language belongs to the group of South Slavic languages. It is in fact a large, autonomous dialect of Slovene, from which it differs mostly in stress, intonation, consonant softness and – due to the lack of a significant language reform – a scarceness of vocabulary of modern terms."

Prekmurian has its own territory and literature. Some of its speakers maintain that Prekmurian is a separate language. Prominent writers in Prekmurian, such as Miklós Küzmics
Miklós Küzmics
-Biography:Küzmics was born in Dolnji Slaveči and died in Kančevci. His parents was János Küsmics and Erzsébet Lev. He was trained as a school supervisor for the Slovene Catholic schools in Prekmurje...

, István Küzmics
István Küzmics
István Küzmics also known in Slovenian as Štefan or Števan Küzmič was the most important Lutheran writer of the Slovenes in Hungary....

, Ágoston Pável
Ágoston Pável
Ágoston Pável, also known in Slovenian as Avgust Pavel was a Hungarian Slovene writer, poet, ethnologist, linguist and historian....

, József Klekl Senior
József Klekl (politician)
József Klekl Slovene Roman Catholic priest and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party , later congressman in Belgrade...

, József Szakovics
József Szakovics
József Szakovics, Slovene Jožef Sakovič, German orthography Joseph Sakowitsch , was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and author in the Prekmurje region...

, and others maintained that Prekmurian is a language, not simply a dialect. In Communist Yugoslavia, Prekmurian was looked down upon because numerous writers, such as József Klekl, were anti-communists.
Evald Flisar
Evald Flisar
Evald Flisar is a Slovene writer, poet, playwright, editor and translator. He was president of the Slovene Writers' Association for three consecutive terms between 1995 and 2002 and is editor-in-chief of the literary and cultural magazine Sodobnost.- Biography :Flisar was born in 1945 in Gerlinci...

 writer, poet and dramatist from Prekmurje (Goričko) but create in Slovene and English, likewise describe the Prekmurian language in the 21st century:
Ágoston Pável still add to: "When researching the cultural impact of Hungarians on Slovenes, we have to draw a distinct line between two Slovene territories: the one within the borders (usually Prekmurian) and the one beyond them (this was usually called Austrian Slovene before World War I). The former had been living together with Hungarians within the borders of a culturally united state for a thousand years, thus it goes without saying that living within the same state bound them closely together in all aspects. The people, ruled by Hungarian feudal lords, followed the orders and customs of their lords in everything… Isolation and the lack of possibilities to evolve independently helped to preserve lots of ancient features in the language, traditions and way of life of this small group of people, on the other hand, it also prevented or slowed down the development of circumstances necessary for independent growth."

Prekmurian is considered part of the Pannonian dialect group (Slovene: ), also known as the Eastern Slovene Group , one of eight dialect groups into which Slovenian is divided. Prekmurian shares many common features with the dialects of the sub-regions of Haloze
Haloze
Haloze is a geographical sub-region of Slovenia. It is in the northeast of the country, in the Lower Styria region.-General characteristics:Haloze is a hilly area, running roughly east-west bounded by the border with Croatia to the south and the Dravinja and Drava rivers to the north...

, Slovenske Gorice
Slovenske gorice
Slovenske gorice with an area of 1017 km2 is the largest hilly region of Slovenia, a smaller part is located in the Austrian province of Styria...

, and Prlekija
Prlekija
Prlekija is a region in northeastern Slovenia between the Drava and Mura rivers. It comprises the eastern part of the Slovenian Hills , stretching from the border with Austria to the border with Croatia. It is part of the traditional province of Lower Styria. Together with the traditional province...

, with which it is completely mutually intelligible. It is also closely related to the Kajkavian dialect
Kajkavian dialect
The Kajkavian dialect is one of the three main dialects of Croatian. It has low mutual intelligibility with the other two dialects, Štokavian and Čakavian. All three are named after their word for "what?", which in Kajkavian is kaj....

 of Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, although the pronunciation differences make mutual comprehension difficult. Prekmurian language, especially its more traditional version spoken by Hungarian Slovenes, is not readily understood by speakers from central and western Slovenia, whereas the speakers of eastern Slovenia (Lower Styria
Lower Styria
Lower Styria or Slovenian Styria is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of Lower Styria in its historical boundaries amounts to around 705,000 inhabitants, or 34.5% of the population of Slovenia...

) have much less difficulty understanding it.

The dialect includes many archaic words that have disappeared from modern Slovene. Some words still used in Prekmurian can be found in the Freising manuscripts
Freising manuscripts
The Freising Manuscripts are the first Latin-script continuous text in a Slavic language and the oldest document in Slovene.The monuments consisting of three texts in the oldest Slovene dialect were discovered bound into a Latin codex...

 from the 9th century, the oldest written record in Slovenian. Along with the three dialects spoken in Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....

 and with the Slovene dialects of eastern Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

, Prekmurian is considered the most conservative of all Slovene dialects with regard to vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...

. On the other hand, many words in modern Prekmurian are borrowed from Hungarian and German.

Phonology

The Prekmurian dialect has a specific phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 that is similar to the phonology of other dialects of the Eastern Slovene group. The vowels ü and ö (the latter is non-phonemic) are used, which do not appear in standard Slovene. For example, the people of Prekmurje would say günac 'ox' (Slovene vol), ülanca 'clay' (standard Slovenian glin(ic)a, and vküp/vküper 'together' (standard Slovenian skupaj). The vowels /ü/ and [ö] are particularly prominent in the northern dialects of Vendvidék and in Goričko. Older names of several settlements — (Budinci
Budinci
Budinci is a dispersed village in the Šalovci Municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.The northern most tip of Slovenia is within the village territory to the northwest of the main settlement with a latitude of 46|52|37....

 (Büdinci), Beltinci
Beltinci
Beltinci is a settlement and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of northeastern Slovenia. The municipality has 8,256 inhabitants...

 (Böltinci), Turnišče
Turnišce
Turnišče is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. It is first mentioned in written documents dating to the 13th century. In 1524 it was granted market rights and town privileges in 1548....

 (Törnišče), and Lemerje
Lemerje
Lemerje is a village in the Puconci Municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.There are two chapels in the settlement. The Evangelical chapel, built in the Neogothic style in 1925 is on the north side of the main road...

 (Lömergje) — surnames (Küzmič, Šömenek, Sükič, Kürnjek, Küplen, Sűnič, and Küčan), and names of rivers and hills (Müra, Möra, Bükovnica, Törnjek) often had these phonemes.

The use of the diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...

s au or ou, unknown in standard Slovenian, is also widespread. Prekmurian speakers would thus say Baug or Boug 'God' (standard Slovene Bog), kaus or kous 'piece' (standard Slovene kos), and paut or pout 'path' (standard Slovene pot).

The preposition v 'in' appears as v in Prekmurje Slovene. The v form in some dialects alternates with f as in Kajkavian. In Vendvidék 'yesterday' is fčará .

Lexicon

Around 50% of the vocabulary of Prekmurian differs from that of standard Slovene, although the number of specific Prekmurian words not found in other Slovene dialects is much lower. intonation
Intonation (linguistics)
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody...

, palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....

 of consonants, and accentuation are also different. There are dozens of Hungarian and German loanwords. The frequent presence of German loanwords is particularly observable among Hungarian Slovenes and in northern and western Prekmurje.

Morphology

Inflections are somewhat similar to Croatian. In Prekmurian, the expression "in Hungary" is v Vogrskoj (cf. Croatian u Ugarskoj, standard Slovenian na Ogrskem). One of the reasons for this closeness to standard Croatian is the long tradition of connections between the two peoples, because before the 18th century, most Prekmurian priests and teachers (both Catholic and Protestant) were educated in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

, particularly in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

 or Varaždin
Varaždin
Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, north of Zagreb on the highway A4. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 on of the city settlement itself . The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river, at...

. In the old Martjanci Hymnal (Sztárá martyanszka peszmarica), the influences of Croatian are clear. The 18th-century Prekmurian writers that created the Prekmurian standard language applied many features of the Kajkavian dialect. In 1833, József Kossics
József Kossics
József Kossics, also known in Slovene as Jožef Košič was a Hungarian-Slovenian writer, Catholic priest, ethnologist, linguist, poet, and historian. He was of Croatian descent....

, who was partially of Croatian descent, wrote a grammar emphasizing the Croatian features, with much of the terminology borrowed from Kajkavian, although elements from Styrian Slovene dialects were also included.
Prekmurian language, like Standard Slovene, preserves a dual number
Dual number
In linear algebra, the dual numbers extend the real numbers by adjoining one new element ε with the property ε2 = 0 . The collection of dual numbers forms a particular two-dimensional commutative unital associative algebra over the real numbers. Every dual number has the form z = a + bε with a and...

 along with the singular and plural; for example, müva va 'the two of us are' (cf. Standard Slovene midva sva), vüva ta 'the two of you are' (cf. Standard Slovene vidva sta), njüva ta 'the two of them are' (cf. Standard Slovene onadva sta).

Orthography

Standard Prekmurian was not written with the Bohorič alphabet
Bohoric alphabet
The Bohorič alphabet was an orthography used for the Slovene language between the 16th and 19th centuries. Its name is derived from Adam Bohorič, who codified the alphabet in his book Articae Horulae Succisivae, published in 1584....

 used by Slovenes in Inner Austria
Inner Austria
Inner Austria was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Windic March, the County of Gorizia , the city of Trieste and assorted smaller possessions...

, but with a Hungarian-based orthography
Hungarian alphabet
The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Hungarian language.One sometimes speaks of the smaller and greater Hungarian alphabets, depending on whether or not the letters Q, W, X, Y are listed, which can only be found in foreign words and traditional...

. János Murkovics
János Murkovics
János Murkovics was Slovene teacher, musician and writer in Hungary.He was born near Ljutomer, Mala Nedelja . He studied in Germany. In 1862 arrived in Hungary at Beltinci. In 1871 wrote his course-book the Abecednik, this was the first book in the prekmurian language.In 1878-1880 worked in...

's textbook (1871) was the first book to use Gaj's Latin Alphabet.

Prekmurian subdialects

  • The Rába or Vendvidék subdialect ( Prekmurian: Bákerski/Porábski/Rábski govor), near the Rába
    Rába
    The Rába is a river in southeastern Austria and western Hungary and a right tributary of the Danube. Its source is in Austria, some kilometres east of Bruck an der Mur below Heubodenhöhe Hill. It flows through the Austrian states of Styria and Burgenland, and the Hungarian counties of Vas and...

     River, in the Szentgotthárd district
  • The Goričko subdialect ( Prekmurian: Gorički govor) in upper Prekmurje, Grad
    Grad, Slovenia
    Grad is a town and a municipality in Slovenia.Grad means 'castle' in Slovene and refers to the castle dating from the late 12th century strategically situated on a hill overlooking the settlement. It is one of the largest castle complexes in Slovenia, with 365 rooms. After World War II, the castle...

    , north of Cankova
    Cankova
    Cankova is a town and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.The area was originally a part of Murska Sobota municipality. In 1995, Cankova - Tišina municipality was formed, which existed until 1999 when Tišina seceded as a separate municipality, giving rise to today's demarcation.The...

    )
  • The Ravensko subdialect ( Prekmurian: Ravénski govor west of Cankova and south of Murska Sobota and Rakičan
    Rakican
    Rakičan is a village in the Murska Sobota municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.There is a Baroque mansion, known as Rakičan Castle to the west of the main settlement. It lies in a large park and was originally a 17th century castle with defences that was remodelled in the 18th...

  • The Murska Sobota subdialect ( Prekmurian: Soboški govor) near Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota is a city in northeastern Slovenia. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.-Name:...

  • The Markovsko or Dolinsko subdialect ( Prekmurian: Dolénski i Markiški govor) south of Rakičan, near the Mura and Ledava rivers.


The Goričko dialect includes the Slaveči subdialect spoken by Miklós and István Küzmics.

History

The Prekmurian dialect developed from the language of the Carantanian Slavs who settled around Balaton
Balaton Principality
The Principality of Lower Pannonia was a Slavic principality located in the western part of the Pannonian plain, between the rivers Danube to its east The Principality of Lower Pannonia (also called Pannonia, Lower Pannonia, Pannonian Principality, Transdanubian Principality, Slavic Pannonian...

 in the 9th century. Due to the political and geographical separation from other Slovene dialects (unlike most of contemporary Slovenia, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

, Prekmurje was under the authority of the Kingdom of Hungary for almost a thousand years), the Prekmurian dialect 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 end of the 16th century some Slovene Protestant pastor supported breaking away from Hungary. The pastors brought along the Bible of Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar or Primož Truber was a Slovene Protestant reformer, the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, a consolidator of the Slovene language and the author of the first Slovene-language printed book...

 and used it in Gornji Petrovci
Gornji Petrovci
Gornji Petrovci is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality includes 14 villages, represented in the municipal coat of arms by fourteen simplified blue houses. The shield also includes a heraldic otter holding a golden fish...

.

The first book in the Prekmurian dialect appeared in 1715, and was written by the Lutheran pastor Ferenc Temlin
Ferenc Temlin
Ferenc Temlin , known in Slovenian as Franc Temlin, was a Slovenian Lutheran pastor in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century.Temlin was born in the village of Krajna in the Prekmurje region of the Kingdom of Hungary. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He wrote the first book in the...

. In the 18th and early 19th century, a regional literature written in Prekmurian language flourished. It comprised mostly (although not exclusively) of religious texts, written by both Protestant and Catholic clergymen. The most important authors were the Lutheran pastor István Küzmics
István Küzmics
István Küzmics also known in Slovenian as Štefan or Števan Küzmič was the most important Lutheran writer of the Slovenes in Hungary....

 and the Roman Catholic priest Miklós Küzmics
Miklós Küzmics
-Biography:Küzmics was born in Dolnji Slaveči and died in Kančevci. His parents was János Küsmics and Erzsébet Lev. He was trained as a school supervisor for the Slovene Catholic schools in Prekmurje...

 who settled the standard for the Prekmurian regional standard language in the 18th century. Both of them were born in central Prekmurje, and accordingly the regional literary language was also based on the central sub-dialects of Prekmurian language.

Miklós Küzmics in the 1790s rejected Standard Slovene. The poet, writer, translator, and journalist Imre Augustich
Imre Augustich
Imre Augustich or Agostich was Slovene writer, poet, journalist, reporter of Vas county in the National Assembly of Hungary. Author of the first newspaper in prekmurian language Prijátel ....

 made approaches toward standard Slovene, but retained the Hungarian alphabet. The poet Ferenc Sbüll
Ferenc Sbüll
Ferenc Sbüll was a Hungarian Slovene poet and Catholic priest in Hungary. He was born in Turnišče, a village in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary. He studied in Kőszeg, Szombathely and Vienna. He wrote both profane and religious poetry in his native prekmurian...

 also made motions toward accepting standard Slovene.

By the 16th century, a theory linking the Hungarian Slovenes to the ancient Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 had become popular. Accordingly, Prekmurian language was frequently designated in Hungarian Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 documents as the Vandalian language (Latin: lingua vandalica, Hungarian: Vandál nyelv, Prekmurian: vandalszki jezik or vandalszka vüszta).

With the advent of modernization in mid 19th century, this kind of literature slowly declined. Nevertheless, the regional standard continued to be used in religious services. In the last decades of the 19th and 20th century, the denomination "Wends
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...

" and "Wendish language" was promoted, mostly by pro-Hungarians, in order to emphasize the difference between Hungarian Slovenes and other Slovenes, including attempts to create a separate ethnic identity.

In 1919, most of Prekmurje was assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Slovene replaced Hungarian as the language of education and administration. Standard Slovene gradually started to replace Prekmurian in the local Roman Catholic church, while the Lutheran community continued to use the dialect in their religious services. The local press tried to combine the old Prekmurian regional standard with standard Slovene, making it completely intelligible to Slovenes from other regions. In the late 1920s and 1930s, many Slovenes from the Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...

 who fled from Fascist Italy
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 settled in Prekmurje, especially in the town of Murska Sobota
Murska Sobota
Murska Sobota is a city in northeastern Slovenia. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.-Name:...

, which helped spread the use of standard Slovene among the population. The Yugoslav authorities encouraged the settlements of Slovene political immigrants from the Kingdom of Italy in Prekmurje as an attempt to reduce the influence of the Magyar
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....

 element in the region; besides, the western Slovene dialects were very difficult to understand for the people of Prekmurje, thus the use of standard Slovene became almost indespensible for the mutual understaning.

After World War II, the Lutheran Church also switched to standard Slovene in most of its parishes, and Prekmurian has since been relegated to an almost exclusively private use. Nevertheless, the Prekmurian dialect is, along with Resian
Resian dialect
The Resian dialect is a distinct dialect of Slovene spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia...

, one of the few Slovene dialects which is still used by the majority of speakers in their respective territories in its original version, with very few influence from standard Slovene. This creates a situation of diglossia
Diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...

, where the dialect is used as the predominant means of communication in the private life, while the standard language is used in schools, the administration and in the media. The situation is different among Hungarian Slovenes, where standard Slovene is still very rarely used.

Standard works of the Prekmurian

  • Ferenc Temlin
    Ferenc Temlin
    Ferenc Temlin , known in Slovenian as Franc Temlin, was a Slovenian Lutheran pastor in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century.Temlin was born in the village of Krajna in the Prekmurje region of the Kingdom of Hungary. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He wrote the first book in the...

    : Mali katechismus (Small Cathecism) the first printed book in prekmurian, 1715
  • Abeczedarium Szlowenszko (Slovene/Prekmurian ABC book) the first prekmurian coursebook, author is unknown, 1725
  • Mihály Szever Vanecsai
    Mihály Szever Vanecsai
    Mihály Szever Vanecsai, also known in Slovenian as Miháo Sever Vaneča or Miháo Sever z Vaneča was a Hungarian Slovenian Lutheran priest, born in the village of Vanecsa in the Prekmurje region...

    : Réd zvelicsánsztva (Expectant salvation) in 1742
  • István Küzmics
    István Küzmics
    István Küzmics also known in Slovenian as Štefan or Števan Küzmič was the most important Lutheran writer of the Slovenes in Hungary....

    : Vöre krsztsánszke krátki návuk (Small tenet of the Christian religion) in 1754
  • István Küzmics: Nouvi Zákon
    Nouvi Zákon
    The Nouvi Zákon is the most famous work of the Hungarian Slovene writer István Küzmics. The Nouvi Zákon is the translation of the Holy Gospel into the Prekmurje dialect...

     (New Testament) translation of the Bible, in 1771
  • Miklós Küzmics
    Miklós Küzmics
    -Biography:Küzmics was born in Dolnji Slaveči and died in Kančevci. His parents was János Küsmics and Erzsébet Lev. He was trained as a school supervisor for the Slovene Catholic schools in Prekmurje...

    : Krátka summa velikoga katekizmusa (Small tenet of the great Cathecism), the first catholic catechism, in 1780
  • Miklós Küzmics: Szlovenszki silabikár (Slovene/Prekmurian Agenda) in 1780
  • Miklós Küzmics: Szvéti evangyeliomi (Holy Gospels) in 1780
  • Miklós Küzmics: Kniga molitvena (Prayer book) in 1783
  • Mihály Bakos
    Mihály Bakos
    Mihály Bakos, also known in Slovene as Miháo Bakoš or Mihael Bakoš, was a Hungarian Slovene Lutheran priest, author, and educator....

    : Szlovenszki Abecedár (Slovene ABC book) in 1786
  • Mihály Bakos: Nouvi Graduvál (New Agenda) in 1789
  • Miklós Küzmics: ABC kni'zicza (ABC book) in 1790
  • Miklós Küzmics: Sztároga i nouvoga Testamentoma szvéte histórie krátka summa (Small tenet of the Holy history of Old and New Testament) in 1796
  • Mihály Bakos: Győrſzki Kátekizmus (Cathecism of Raab) in 1796
  • István Szijjártó
    István Szijjártó
    István Szijjártó was a Slovenian evangelic teacher and poet in Hungary.He was born in Večeslavci , near the Styrian border. His father was Iván Szijjártó slovene peasant. Studied in Nemescsó and in Sopron, in the evangelic lyceum . At first, he was teacher in Križevci from 1787-1806 in Puconci...

    : Mrtvecsne peszmi (Dead Hymns) in 1796
  • István Szijjártó: Molitvi na ſztári ſzlovenſzki jezik (Prayers into the old Slovene language) in 1797
  • István Szijjártó(?): Sztarisinsztvo i zvacsinsztvo, in 1807
  • Mihály Barla
    Mihály Barla
    Mihály Barla Slovene Miháo Barla Slovenian evangelic pastor, writer and poet.Born in Murska Sobota. Studied in Sopron, in the Evangelic Lyceum, by 1803 studied in the University of Jena....

    : Diktomszke, verszuske i molitvene kni'zice (Small book of the hymns, verses and prayers)
  • Mihály Barla: Krscsanszke nôve peszmene knige (New Christian hymn-book), 1823
  • József Kossics
    József Kossics
    József Kossics, also known in Slovene as Jožef Košič was a Hungarian-Slovenian writer, Catholic priest, ethnologist, linguist, poet, and historian. He was of Croatian descent....

    : Krátki návuk vogrszkoga jezika za zacsetníke (Small tenet of the Hungarian language), 1833
  • György Czipott
    György Czipott
    György Czipott Slovene Juri Cipot, Prekmurian Djürji Cipott was a Slovenian evangelic pastor, teacher and writer in Hungary. His son Rudolf Czipott was a writer....

    : Dühovni Áldovi (Ghostly Blessing), 1829
  • István Lülik
    István Lülik
    István Lülik was a Lutheran schoolmaster in the Prekmurje region of the Kingdom of Hungary, today in Slovenia, in the 19th century. He lived and worked in Puconci, near Murska Sobota....

    : Novi abeczedár (New ABC book), 1833
  • János Kardos
    János Kardos
    János Kardos, also known in Slovene as Janoš Kardoš was a Hungarian Slovenian Evangelic priest, teacher and writer....

    : D. Luther Martina máli kátekismus (Small cathecism of Martin Luther), 1837
  • János Kardos: Krátki návuk krsztsansztva (Small tenet of the Christianity), 1837
  • János Kardos: Mála historia bibliszka (Small history of Bible), 1840
  • József Kossics
    József Kossics
    József Kossics, also known in Slovene as Jožef Košič was a Hungarian-Slovenian writer, Catholic priest, ethnologist, linguist, poet, and historian. He was of Croatian descent....

    : Zobriszani Szloven i Szlovenka med Műrov i Rábov (Educated Slovene Man and Women between the Mura and Raba), 1845
  • Sándor Terplán
    Sándor Terplán
    Sándor Terplán Hungarian Slovenian Lutheran priest and writer.He was born in the Prekmurje region in the Kingdom of Hungary, into a Lutheran family. Several priests were born in his village, both Catholic and Lutheran, including littérateurs or gentilitial politicians, such as József Borovnják and...

    : Dvakrat 52 Bibliszke Historie (Twice 52 History from Bible), 1847
  • János Kardos: Krsztsanszke czerkvene peszmi (Christian church-hymns), 1848
  • János Kardos: Krsztsanszke mrtvecsne peszmi (Christian dead-hymns), 1848
  • Sándor Terplán: Knige 'zoltárszke (Book of Psalms), 1848
  • József Kossics: Zgodbe vogerszkoga králesztva (History of the Hungarian Kingdom), 1848
  • József Kossics: Sztarine 'Seleznih ino Szalaszkih Szlovencov (Antiques of the Slovenes in Vas and Zala), af. 1845
  • József Kossics: Jezus moje po'selejnye (Jezus my wish), 1851
  • János Kardos: Pobo'zne molítvi (Church prayers), 1853
  • János Kardos: ABC ali Návuk na píszajôcs-cstenyé (ABC book or the Tenet of the writing and reading), 1867
  • Szlovenszki ABCDAR (Slovene ABC-book), 1868
  • József Borovnyák: Dühovna hrána (Nutriment), 1868
  • János Murkovics
    János Murkovics
    János Murkovics was Slovene teacher, musician and writer in Hungary.He was born near Ljutomer, Mala Nedelja . He studied in Germany. In 1862 arrived in Hungary at Beltinci. In 1871 wrote his course-book the Abecednik, this was the first book in the prekmurian language.In 1878-1880 worked in...

    : Abecednik za katholičanske vesničke šolé (ABC-book for the elementary schools), 1871
  • István Szelmár
    István Szelmár
    István Szelmár, also known in Slovene as Števan Selmar was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and writer in the Kingdom of Hungary.His original surname was Szlámár . His father's name was Mihály Szlámár...

    : Zgodbe Sztároga i Nóvoga Zákona (Historys of the Old and New Testament), 1873
  • Imre Augustich
    Imre Augustich
    Imre Augustich or Agostich was Slovene writer, poet, journalist, reporter of Vas county in the National Assembly of Hungary. Author of the first newspaper in prekmurian language Prijátel ....

    : Prijátel (Friend), 1875-1879
  • József Borovnyák: Szvéti Angel Csuvár (Holy Guardian Angel), 1875
  • Imre Augustich: Návuk vogrszkoga jezika (Tenet of the Hungarian language), 1876
  • Imre Augustich: Prirodopis s kepami (Natural history with images), 1878
  • József Bagáry
    József Bagáry
    József Bagáry was Slovene Roman Catholic priest and writer in Hungary.Born in Murska Sobota. His father József Bagáry Hungarian petty nobleman, mother slovene Katalin Monek.Studied in Güns and Szombathely, was consecrated on July 14, 1866...

    : Perve knige – čtenyá za katholičánske vesničke šolê (First book of the reading for the Catholic Elementary Schools), 1886
  • József Pusztai
    József Pusztai
    József Pusztai – originally József Pozderecz, – was a Slovene writer, poet, journalist, teacher and cantor in Hungary. He was also known under the pen name of Tibor Andorhegyi....

    –József Borovnjak–József Bagáry: Krscsánszko katholicsánszke cerkvene peszmi (Christian Catholic Hymnal), 1893
  • Péter Kollár
    Péter Kollár
    Péter Kollár Slovene Peter Kolar Hungarian Slovenian Roman Catholic priest and writer.Born in Ratkovci , his parents were Péter Kollár and Judit Zselezen. He Was consecrated in 13 July 1882. He was chaplain in Črenšovci until 1885 later parish clerk in Bogojina...

    : Mála biblija z-kejpami (Small Bible with pictures), 1897
  • József Szakovics
    József Szakovics
    József Szakovics, Slovene Jožef Sakovič, German orthography Joseph Sakowitsch , was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and author in the Prekmurje region...

    : Katolicsanszki katekizmus z glávnimi zgodbami biblije (Small cathecism with the main historys of Bible), 1907
  • Iván Bassa
    Iván Bassa
    Iván Bassa Slovene Ivan Baša Slovenian Roman Catholic priest, writer and politic.Born in Beltinci , his parents József Bassa and Anna Vucsko. Was consecrate on 16 July 1898. Chaplain in Sankt Martin an der Raab, Sveti Jurij, Rogašovci and Rechnitz...

    : Katolicsanszki katekizmus za solare (Catholic cathecism for the Schoolchilderns), 1909
  • József Klekl sg.
    József Klekl (politician)
    József Klekl Slovene Roman Catholic priest and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party , later congressman in Belgrade...

    : Hodi k oltarskomi svestvi (Come on to Eucharist), 1910
  • József Klekl sg.: Novine (Tidings), 1913-1941
  • István Kühár: Mörszka krajina (Mura March), 1922-1927

1823-1848

A second wave of standardisation began in 1823. Mihály Barla
Mihály Barla
Mihály Barla Slovene Miháo Barla Slovenian evangelic pastor, writer and poet.Born in Murska Sobota. Studied in Sopron, in the Evangelic Lyceum, by 1803 studied in the University of Jena....

 issue to a new hymn-book (Krscsanszke nove peszmene knige). József Kossics, a great writer and poet from Ptrekmurje, made contact with the Slovenian linguist Oroslav Caf and thus get acquainted with the Styrian Slovenian dialect. Kossics first worked in Alsószölnök. The teacher of the village was József Vogrin (Jožef Vogrin) born into the Slovene Styria, and accordingly spoke the Styrian dialect. Kossics's father was of Croatian descent, and accordingly was also raised in the kajkavian Croatian language. The Krátki návuk vogrszkoga jezika za zacsetníke, a Slovenian-Hungarian grammarbook and dictionary let out the standard Prekmurian. The Zobriszani Szloven i Szlovenszka med Mürov in Rábov ethic-book, formed the ethics- and linguistic-norms. Zgodbe vogerszkoga králesztva and Sztarine Zseleznih ino Szalaszkih Szlovencov is the first Prekmurje Slovenian history books. Kossics was the first writer to write non-religious poetry.

In 1820, a teacher named István Lülik
István Lülik
István Lülik was a Lutheran schoolmaster in the Prekmurje region of the Kingdom of Hungary, today in Slovenia, in the 19th century. He lived and worked in Puconci, near Murska Sobota....

 wrote a new course-book (Novi abeczedár), into which was made three issue (1853, 1856, 1863).

Sándor Terplán and János Kardos
János Kardos
János Kardos, also known in Slovene as Janoš Kardoš was a Hungarian Slovenian Evangelic priest, teacher and writer....

 was wrote a psalmody (Knige 'zoltárszke), and a hymn-book (Krsztsanszke czerkvene peszmi), the latter a reprint of Barla's hymn-book.

1870-1886

János Kardos translated numerous verses from Sándor Petőfi
Sándor Petofi
Sándor Petőfi , was a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He is considered as Hungary's national poet and he was one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848...

, János Arany
János Arany
János Arany , was a Hungarian journalist, writer, poet, and translator. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 40 ballads which have been translated into over 50 languages, as well as the Toldi trilogy, to mention his most famous works.-Biography:He was born in...

 and few Hungarian poet. In 1870, he worked on a new course-book, the Nôve knige cstenyá za vesznícski sôl drügi zlôcs.
In 1875, Imre Augustich
Imre Augustich
Imre Augustich or Agostich was Slovene writer, poet, journalist, reporter of Vas county in the National Assembly of Hungary. Author of the first newspaper in prekmurian language Prijátel ....

 establish the first Prekmurian newspaper Prijátel (The Friend). Later, he wrote a new Hungarian-Prekmurian grammar (Návuk vogrszkoga jezika, 1876) and translated works from Hungarian poets and writers.

In 1886, József Bagáry
József Bagáry
József Bagáry was Slovene Roman Catholic priest and writer in Hungary.Born in Murska Sobota. His father József Bagáry Hungarian petty nobleman, mother slovene Katalin Monek.Studied in Güns and Szombathely, was consecrated on July 14, 1866...

 wrote second course-book, which apply the Gaj alphabet (Perve knige – čtenyá za katholičánske vesničke šolê).

1914-1945

In 1914-1918, the ethnic governor and later parliamentarian congressman in Beograd József Klekl standardized Prekmurian, making use of the Croatian and Slovene languages. In 1923, the new prayer-book's Hodi k oltarskomi svesti (Come on to the Eucharist) ortography was written in the Gaj. Items in the newspapers the catholic Novine, Marijin list, Marijin ograček, calendar Kalendar Srca Jezušovoga, the Lutheran Düševni list and Evangeličanski kalendar were written in the prekmurian language.

József Szakovics
József Szakovics
József Szakovics, Slovene Jožef Sakovič, German orthography Joseph Sakowitsch , was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and author in the Prekmurje region...

 took an active part in cultivating the Prekmurje dialect, although not all schools offered education in Prekmurian. The prominent Prekmurian writer Miško Kranjec
Miško Kranjec
Miško Kranjec was a Slovene writer.Kranjec was born in the village of Velika Polana in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the son of the village tailor Mihalj Kranjec...

 also wrote in Slovene.

János Fliszár
János Fliszár
János Fliszár was a Hungarian Slovenian translator, poet, writer, journalist and teacher....

 wrote a Hungarian-Wendish dictionary in 1922. In 1941, the Hungarian Army seized back the Prekmurje area and by 1945 aimed to make an end of the Prekmurian dialect and Slovene by the help of Mikola.

After 1945, communist Yugoslavia banned the printing of religious books in the Prekmurian dialects, and only standard Slovene was used in administration and education. In Hungary, the dictator Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born as Mátyás Rosenfeld, in present-day Serbia...

 banned every minority language and deported the Slovenes in the Hungarian Plain.

The question of the Wends or Prekmurian language

The issue of how Prekmurian came to be a separate tongue has many theories. First, in the 16th century, there was a theory that the Slovenes east of the Mura were descendants of the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

, an East Germanic tribe of pre-Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 era antiquity. The Vandal name was used not only as the "scientific" or ethnological term for the Slovenes, but also to acknowledge that the Vandalic people were named the Szlovenci, szlovenszki, szlovenye (Slovenians).

In 1627, was issue the Protestant visitation in the country Tótság, or Slovene Circumscription (this is the historical name of the Prekmurje and Vendvidék, Prekmurian: Slovenska okroglina). Herein act a Slavic Bible in Gornji Petrovci
Gornji Petrovci
Gornji Petrovci is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality includes 14 villages, represented in the municipal coat of arms by fourteen simplified blue houses. The shield also includes a heraldic otter holding a golden fish...

, which as a matter of fact the Bible of Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar
Primož Trubar or Primož Truber was a Slovene Protestant reformer, the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church of the Slovene Lands, a consolidator of the Slovene language and the author of the first Slovene-language printed book...

. From Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

 and Styria in the 16th and 17th centuries, a few Slovene Protestant pastors fled to Hungary and brought with them Trubar's Bible, which helped set the standard for Slovene. Not known by accident there was work on Prekmurian.

According to the Hungarian dissenters, the Wendish
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...

 (Prekmurian) language was of Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

, Sorbian
Sorbian languages
The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code...

, Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...

, Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

, Eastern Romance or West Slavic
West Slavic languages
The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, Kashubian and Sorbian.Classification:* Indo-European** Balto-Slavic*** Slavic**** West Slavic***** Czech-Slovak languages****** Czech...

 extraction. But this was often false, political or exaggerated affirmations.

According to extremist Hungarian groups, the Wends were captured by Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 and Croatian
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...

 troops who were later integrated into Hungarian society. Another popular theory created by some Hungarian nationalists was that the speakers of the Wendish language were "in truth" Magyar peoples, and some had merged into the Slavic population of Slovenia over the last 800 years.
In 1920, Hungarian physicist Sándor Mikola wrote a number of books about Slovene inhabitants of Hungary and the Wends language: the Wendish-Celtic theory. Accordingly, the Wends (Slovenians in Hungary) were of Celtic extraction, not Slavic. Later Mikola also adopted the belief that the Wends indeed were Slavic-speaking Hungarians. In Hungary, the state's ethnonationalistic program tried to prove his theories. Mikola also thought the Wends, Slovenes, and Croatians alike were all descendants of the Pannonian Romans, therefore they have Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 blood and culture in them as well.

During the Hungarian revolution
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...

 when Hungarians rebelled against Habsburg rule, the Catholic Slovenes sided with the Catholic Habsburgs. The Lutheran Slovenians, however, supported the rebel Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.-Family:Lajos...

 siding with Hungary and they pleaded for the separation of Hungary from Habsburg Austria which had its anti-Protestant policy. At that time, the reasoning that the inhabitants of the Rába Region were not Slovenes but Wends and "Wendish-Slovenes" respectively and that, as a consequence, their ancestral Slavic-Wendish language was not to be equated with the other Slovenes living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established. In the opinion of the Lutheran-Slovene priest of Hodoš
Hodoš
Hodoš is a town and a municipality in Slovenia. It is part of the Prekmurje region. Both Slovene and Hungarian are official languages in the municipality....

, the only possibility for the Lutheran Slovenes emerging from the Catholic-Slovenian population group to continue was to support Kossuth and his Hungarian culture. Thereafter, the Lutheran Slovenes used their language in churches and schools in the most traditional way in order to distinguish themselves from the Catholic Slovenes and the Slovene language (i.e., pro-Hungarian or pan-Slavic Slovene literature). The Lutheran priests and believers remained of the conviction that they could only adhere to their Lutheran faith when following the wish of the Hungarians (or the Austrians) and considering themselves "Wendish-Slovenes". If they did not conform to this, then they were in danger of being assimilated into Hungarian culture.

In the years preceding World War I, the Hungarian Slovenes were swepted into the ideology of Panslavism, the national unity of all Slavic-speaking peoples of Eastern Europe. The issue was volatile in the fragmented Austro-Hungarian empire, which was defeated in the war. In the 1921 Treaty of Trianon, the southern half (not the whole) of the Prekmurje region was ceded to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...

.

The Hungarian government in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 after 1867 tried to assimilate the Prekmurians
Prekmurians
The Prekmurje Slovenes are Slovenes from Prekmurje in Slovenia and Vendvidék and Somogy in Hungary. The Prekmurje Slovenes speak the Prekmurje dialect and have a common culture...

. In Somogy in the 19th century, there was still a ban on using the Prekmurian language. József Borovnyák, Ferenc Ivanóczy, and other Slovenian politicians and writers helped safeguard the Prekmurian dialect and identity.
In the late 20th century and today, the new notion for Hungarian Slovenians is to conceive Prekmurian is in fact the Slovene language, but not dialect. Their allusions: the Küzmics Gospels, the Old Grammar- and state-run public schools, the typical Prekmurian and Rába Slovene culture, the few centuries old-long isolation in Prekmurian and continued self-preservation from the Hungarian majority. Hungarian Slovenes are more interested in being Slovenes.
However, pseudoscientic
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

 and extremist theories continue to be propagated. Ethnological research has again looked into the "Celtic-Wends, Wendish-Magyars", "Pannonian Roman" and West Slavic theories. Tibor Zsiga, a prominent Hungarian historian in 2001 declared "The Slovene people cannot be declared Wends, neither in Slovenia, neither in Prekmurje." One may mind the Slovene/Slovenski name issue was under Pan-Slavism in the 19th-20th century, the other believes the issue was purely political in nature.

Examples

A comparison between the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...

 in standard Slovene, Standard Prekmurian, standard Croatian, Kajkavian Croatian (standard language and dialect of Međimurje) and Burgenland Croatian. The Prekmurian version is taken from an authorized prayer book published in 1942 (Zálozso János Zvér, Molitvena Kniga, Odobrena od cérkvene oblászti, Murska Sobota, 1942, third edition). The Hungarian alphabet
Hungarian alphabet
The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Hungarian language.One sometimes speaks of the smaller and greater Hungarian alphabets, depending on whether or not the letters Q, W, X, Y are listed, which can only be found in foreign words and traditional...

, used in the original, has been transliterated in to Gaj's Latin alphabet, used in the other three versions, in order to render the comparison easier.
Standard Slovene Standard Prekmurian


Oče naš, ki si v nebesih,
posvečeno bodi tvoje ime,
pridi k nam tvoje kraljestvo,
zgodi se tvoja volja
kakor v nebesih tako na zemlji.
Daj nam danes naš vsakdanji kruh
in odpusti nam naše dolge,
kakor tudi mi odpuščamo svojim dolžnikom,
in ne vpelji nas v skušnjavo,
temveč reši nas hudega.
Amen.


Oča naš, ki si vu nebésaj!
Svéti se Ime tvoje.
Pridi králestvo tvoje.
Bojdi vola tvoja,
kak na nébi, tak i na zemli.
Krüha našega vsakdanéšnjega daj nam
ga dnes.
I odpüsti nam duge naše,
kak i mi odpüščamo dužnikom našim.
I ne vpelaj nas vu sküšávanje.
Nego odslobodi nas od hüdoga.
Amen.

Standard Croatian Standard Prekmurian


Oče naš, koji jesi na nebesima,
sveti se ime tvoje,
dođi kraljevstvo tvoje,
budi volja tvoja,
kako na nebu tako i na zemlji.
Kruh naš svagdanji daj
nam danas
i otpusti nam duge naše,
kako i mi otpuštamo dužnicima našim,
i ne uvedi nas u napast,
nego izbavi nas od zla.
Amen.


Oča naš, ki si vu nebésaj!
Svéti se Ime tvoje.
Pridi králestvo tvoje.
Bojdi vola tvoja,
kak na nébi, tak i na zemli.
Krüha našega vsakdanéšnjega daj nam
ga dnes.
I odpüsti nam duge naše,
kak i mi odpüščamo dužnikom našim.
I ne vpelaj nas vu sküšávanje.
Nego odslobodi nas od hüdoga.
Amen.

Standard Kajkavian Standard Prekmurian


Otec naš, koji jesi v nebesih,
sveti se ime tvoje,
dojdi kralevstvo tvoje,
budi volja tvoja,
kak na nebu tak i na zemli.
Kruh naš svakdašni daj
nam denes
i otpusti nam duge naše,
kak i mi otpuščamo dužnikom našim,
i ne uvedi nas v napast,
nek izbavi nas od zla.
Amen.


Oča naš, ki si vu nebésaj!
Svéti se Ime tvoje.
Pridi králestvo tvoje.
Bojdi vola tvoja,
kak na nébi, tak i na zemli.
Krüha našega vsakdanéšnjega daj nam
ga dnes.
I odpüsti nam duge naše,
kak i mi odpüščamo dužnikom našim.
I ne vpelaj nas vu sküšávanje.
Nego odslobodi nas od hüdoga.
Amen.

Kajkavian dialect of Međimurje Standard Prekmurian


Japa naš kteri si f 'nebesih,
nek sesvete ime Tvoje,
nek prihaja cesarstvo Tvoje,
nek bu volja Tvoja,
kakti na nebe tak pa na zemle.
Kruhek naš sakdajni nam
daj denes
ter odpuščaj nam dugi naše,
kakti mi odpuščamo dužnikom našim,
ter naj nas fpelati vu skušnje,
nek nas zbavi od sekih hudobah.
Amen.


Oča naš, ki si vu nebésaj!
Svéti se Ime tvoje.
Pridi králestvo tvoje.
Bojdi vola tvoja,
kak na nébi, tak i na zemli.
Krüha našega vsakdanéšnjega daj nam
ga dnes.
I odpüsti nam duge naše,
kak i mi odpüščamo dužnikom našim.
I ne vpelaj nas vu sküšávanje.
Nego odslobodi nas od hüdoga.
Amen.

Standard Burgenland Croatian Standard Prekmurian


Oče naš, ki si na nebesi,
sveti se ime tvoje,
pridi kraljevstvo tvoje,
budi volja tvoja,
kako na nebu tako i na zemlji.
Kruh naš svakidanji daj
nam danas,
i otpusti nam duge naše,
kako i mi otpušćamo dužnikom našim,
i ne zapeljaj nas u skušavanje,
nego oslobodi nas od zla.
Amen.


Oča naš, ki si vu nebésaj!
Svéti se Ime tvoje.
Pridi králestvo tvoje.
Bojdi vola tvoja,
kak na nébi, tak i na zemli.
Krüha našega vsakdanéšnjega daj nam
ga dnes.
I odpüsti nam duge naše,
kak i mi odpüščamo dužnikom našim.
I ne vpelaj nas vu sküšávanje.
Nego odslobodi nas od hüdoga.
Amen.

Examples of differing words

Prekmurian Standard Slovene English
pránje umivanje, pomivanje washing
skrpmeti, merkati paziti to look after
meštančar, pörgar meščan burgess
hiža/iža hiša house
odratüvati odvrniti distract, wipe out
vözvenje poizvedovanje interest
nikédig, nindrik ponekod anywhere
mértüčlivost zmernost temperateness
céntor/cintor pokopališče cemetery
réditelstvo uredništvo editorial office

Examples of concordant words

Prekmurian Standard Slovene English
nepokornost nepokornost disobedience
küščar kuščar lizard
korouna korona corona
nastlati nastlati to litter
čipka čipka lace
skrivnost skrivnost secret, mystery
zdrávje zdravje health
stüdenec studenec, vodnjak (water) well
mesečen mesečen monthly
süšiti sušiti to dry

Examples of partially different words

Prekmurian Standard Slovene English
mesou meso meat, (fruit) flesh
pridrdati pridrveti to come rushing
prigoditi se zgoditi se to happen
naprej stati nastati to arise
poküšati se preizkušati se experiment to
nágoča nagota nudity
lače hlače trousers
ládarstvo vladarstvo governance
kradlivi kradljiv sampling tube
závec zajec rabbit

Examples of Hungarian loanwords

Prekmurian Hungarian Standard Slovene English
roság ország država state
čikoš csikós konjski pastir wrangler
pajdáš pajtás tovariš buddy
lampaš lámpás svetilka small lamp
čizma csizma škorenj boot
šapká sapka kapa cap
šator sátor šotor tent
tanáč tanács svet advice
váraš város mesto town
vámoš vámos cestninar toll-keeper

False friends in the Prekmurian and Slovene

PrekmurianMeaningSloveneMeaning
günec ox junec bull-veal
graj bean grah pea
glejv, lejv piggery hlev equerry
šteti, čteti read šteti count
stoul table stol chair

The months in Prekmurian

Standard Slovene Prekmurian Standard Croatian English
januar/prosinec
februar/svečan
marec/sušec
April/Mali traven
maj/veliki traven
junij/rožnik
julij/Mali srpan
avgust/veliki srpan
September/kimavec
oktober/vinotok
November/listopad
December/gruden
sečén
süšec (old sűca)
Mali tráven
velki tráven
risáošček
ivánšček
jakopšček
méšnjek
miháošček
vsesvéšček
andrejšček
prosinec
siječanj
veljača
ožujak
travanj
svibanj
lipanj
srpanj
kolovoz
rujan
listopad
studeni
prosinac
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

See also

  • Languages of Slovenia
    Languages of Slovenia
    Slovenia has been a meeting area of the Slavic, Germanic, Romance, and Uralic linguistic and cultural regions. The official and national language of Slovenia is Slovene, which is spoken by a large majority of the population. It is also known, in English, as Slovenian...

  • List of Slovene writers and poets in Hungary
  • Slovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)
    Slovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)
    The Slovene March or Slovene krajina was the traditional denomination of the Slovene-speaking areas of the Vas and Zala County in the Kingdom of Hungary from the late 18th century until the Treaty of Trianon in 1919...

  • Vandalic language
    Vandalic language
    Vandalic was a Germanic language probably closely related to Gothic. The Vandals, Hasdingi and Silingi established themselves in Gallaecia and in Southern Spain, following other Germanic and non-Germanic peoples , before moving to North Africa in AD 429.Very little is known about the Vandalic...


  • János Fliszár
    János Fliszár
    János Fliszár was a Hungarian Slovenian translator, poet, writer, journalist and teacher....

  • József Klekl (politician)
    József Klekl (politician)
    József Klekl Slovene Roman Catholic priest and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party , later congressman in Belgrade...

  • Ágoston Pável
    Ágoston Pável
    Ágoston Pável, also known in Slovenian as Avgust Pavel was a Hungarian Slovene writer, poet, ethnologist, linguist and historian....


Sources

  • Mária Mukics: Changing World - The Hungarian Slovenians (Változó Világ - A magyarországi szlovének) Press Publica
  • Mukics Ferenc: Szlovén Nyelvkönyv/Slovenska slovnica (Slovenian language-book), 1997. ISBN 963 04 9261 X
  • Vilko Novak: Slovar stare knjižne prekmurščine, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana
    Ljubljana
    Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

     2006. ISBN 961-6568-60-4
  • Fliszár János: Magyar-vend szótár/Vogrszki-vendiski rêcsnik, Budapest
    Budapest
    Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

     1922.
  • Francek Mukič: Porabsko-knjižnoslovensko-madžarski slovar, Szombathely
    Szombathely
    Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

     2005. ISBN 963-217-762-2
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Ágost Pável's Prekmurje Slovene grammar. Slavistična revija 37/1-3 (1989), 353-364.
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Circumflex advancement in Prekmurje and beyond / O pomiku praslovanskega cirkumfleksa v slovenščini in kajkavščini, s posebnim ozirom na razvoj v prekmurščini in sosednjih narečjih. Slovene studies 14/1 (1992), 69-91.
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Glasoslovni opis treh prekmurskih govorov in komentar k zgodovinskemu glasoslovju in oblikoglasju prekmurskega narečja. Slavistična revija 41/4 (1993), 465-487.
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Archaisms and innovations in the dialect of Središče: (Southeastern Prlekija, Slovenia). Indiana Slavic studies 7 (1994), 90-102.
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Prekmurje grammar as a source of Slavic comparative material. Slovenski jezik 7 (2009), 28-44.
  • Marc L. Greenberg: Slovar beltinskega prekmurskega govora. Slavistična revija 36 (1988). 452–456. [Review essay of Franc Novak, Slovar beltinskega prekmurskega govora [A Dictionary of the Prekmurje Dialect of Beltinci].
  • Franci Just: Med verzuško in pesmijo, Poezija Prekmurja v prvi polovici 20. stoletja, Franc-Franc, Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota is a city in northeastern Slovenia. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.-Name:...

     2000. ISBN 961-219-025-9
  • Vilko Novak: Slovar stare knjižne prekmurščine, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana
    Ljubljana
    Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

    , 2006. ISBN 961-6568-60-4
  • Vilko Novak: Martjanska pesmarica, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana
    Ljubljana
    Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

    , 1997. ISBN 961-6182-27-7
  • Vilko Novak: Zgodovina iz spomina/Történelem emlékezetből – Polemika o knjigi Tiborja Zsige Muravidéktől Trianonig/Polémia Zsiga Tibor Muravidéktől Trianonig című könyvéről, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana
    Ljubljana
    Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

    , 2004. ISBN 961-6500-34-1
  • Anton Trstenjak: Slovenci na Ogrskem, Narodopisna in književna črtica, objava arhivskih virov MARIBOR
    Maribor
    Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

     2006. ISBN 961-6507-09-5
  • Marija Kozar: Etnološki slovar slovencev na Madžarskem, Monošter
    Szentgotthárd
    Szentgotthárd is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border, and is home to much of Hungary's small Slovene ethnic minority....

    -Szombathely
    Szombathely
    Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

     1996. ISBN 963-7206-62-0
  • Források a Muravidék történetéhez 1./Viri za zgodovino Prekmurja 1. Szombathely
    Szombathely
    Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

    -Zalaegerszeg
    Zalaegerszeg
    In 2001 Zalaegerszeg had 61,654 inhabitants . The distribution of religions were, 71.1% Roman Catholic, 3.8% Calvinist, 1.6% Lutheran, 11.6% Atheist .-Notable people:* Lajos Botfy , mayor...

    , 2008. ISBN 978-963-7227-19-6 Ö
  • Források a Muravidék történetéhez/Viri za zgodovino Prekmurja 2. Szombathely
    Szombathely
    Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

    -Zalaegerszeg
    Zalaegerszeg
    In 2001 Zalaegerszeg had 61,654 inhabitants . The distribution of religions were, 71.1% Roman Catholic, 3.8% Calvinist, 1.6% Lutheran, 11.6% Atheist .-Notable people:* Lajos Botfy , mayor...

     2008. ISBN 978-963-7227-19-6
  • Molitvena Kniga, Odobrena od cérkvene oblászti, edit: József Szakovics
    József Szakovics
    József Szakovics, Slovene Jožef Sakovič, German orthography Joseph Sakowitsch , was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest and author in the Prekmurje region...

     1942.
  • Pokrajinski muzej Murska Sobota, Katalog stalne razstave, Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota
    Murska Sobota is a city in northeastern Slovenia. It is located in the eponymous municipality near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.-Name:...

     1997. ISBN 961-90438-1-2
  • Jerneja Kopitarja
    Jernej Kopitar
    Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...

     Glagolita Clozianus/Cločev Glagolit, Ljubljana
    Ljubljana
    Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

     1995. ISBN 86-7207-078-X
  • Življenje in delo Jožefa Borovnjaka, Edit: Marko Jesenšek, Maribor
    Maribor
    Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

    2008.
  • Bea Baboš Logar: Prekmurska narečna slovstvena ustvarjalnost – mednarodno znanstveno srečanje: prekmurščina zanimiva tudi za tuje znanstvenike, Vestnik July 17, 2003.
  • Predgovor. Nouvi Zákon, Stevan Küzmics, Pokrajinski Muzej Murska Sobota 2008. ISBN 978-961-6579-04-9 (Translations: in English Peter Lamovec; in Hungarian Gabriella Bence; in slovene Mihael Kuzmič)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK