Department of the History of the Slovenian Language
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Head: Andreja Legan Ravnikar
+386 1 200 60 01
andreja.legan-ravnikar@zrc-sazu.si
Location: Wolfova 8, 2. nadstropje
Department Purpose and Activity
The department currently employs six researchers, who deal with dictionary entries and research on Slovenian in the past, especially written Slovenian of the sixteenth century. Language content is prepared for specialized users in linguistics and in literary and cultural history, and popular content is produced to inform general users. Members conduct research on historical lexicology and lexicography, historical morphology and word formation, historical terminology and phraseology, historical sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, the history of linguistics, and the history of written Slovenian from the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. Some members teach at the ZRC SAZU Graduate School, and they also frequently appear as guest lecturers in Slovenia and abroad.
The historical dictionary Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika 16. stoletja (Dictionary of Sixteenth-Century Slovenian, 2021–; editors-in-chief of the first volume Kozma Ahačič, Metod Čepar, Alenka Jelovšek, Andreja Legan Ravnikar, Majda Merše (retired), Jožica Narat (retired), & France Novak (retired)) is being compiled as part of the department.
A member of the department is the editor-in-chief of the Fran and Franček language portals, and some members are involved in creating and improving the Fran portal and are in charge of visualization of historical language information. Members serve as editors and are on the editorial boards of Slovenian and international linguistics journals, and the institute’s book collection, and they are (co)editors of research volumes and scientific critical editions, selected works, and unpublished material from the estates of Slovenian linguists. They also compose the answers and serve on the editorial board for the Language Advisory Service, which operates under the auspices of the Department of Language Standardisation. One of the members writes grammars and textbooks for primary and secondary schools.
Within the department, some seminal works for Slovenian have been and are being created, including:
- A general explanatory historical dictionary: Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika 16. stoletja (A-D) (Dictionary of Sixteenth-Century Slovenian, A–D; 2021)
- Historical dictionaries and dictionary collections: Besedje slovenskega knjižnega jezika 16. stoletja (Vocabulary of Sixteenth-Century Slovenian, 2011, online 2014), Wortschatz der slowenischen Bibelübersetzungen des 16. Jahrhunderst (Vocabulary of Sixteenth-Century Slovenian Bible Translations, Biblia Slavica 2006), Slovensko-latinski slovar: po: Matija Kastelec – Gregor Vorenc, Dictionarium Latino-Carniolicum (Slovenian–Latin Dictionary Based on Dictionarium Latino-Carniolicum (1680–1710) by Matija Kastelec and Gregor Vorenc; 1997, online 2014)
- Language corpora: Korpus 16: Korpus besedil slovenskih protestantskih piscev 16. stoletja (Corpus 16: Corpus of Texts by Slovenian Protestant Writers of the Sixteenth Century, 2019)
- Online collections: Slovenske slovnice in pravopisi (Slovenian Grammars and Normative Guides, 2015), Corpus de textes linguistiques fondamentaux (Corpus of Seminal Linguistic Texts, 2014)
- Collector’s edition: Stati inu obstati: prvih petdeset slovenskih knjig (To Stand and Withstand: The First Fifty Slovenian Books, 2021)
Current Projects
Members of the department have been or are involved in the following programs and projects:
- Slovenian in Synchronic and Diachronic Development (January 1st, 2015 – December 31st, 2021)
- Development of Slovenian in the Digital Environment: Language Resources and Technologies (May 4th, 2020 – August 31st, 2022)
- Image–Word–Knowledge. The Life of Ideas between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic. 1400–1800 (January 1st, 2022 – December 31st, 2027)
- Preparing a Primer of Hippolytus’s Dictionary and Its Online Publication (May 1st, 2022 – October 31st, 2022)
- The History of Slovenian Literary Translation (September 1st, 2020 – August 31st, 2023)
Media Presence
Achievements by members of the department also appear in the media, where they frequently present their work:
- Povijesni rječnik za povijest (Zgodovinski slovar za zgodovino) (A Historical Dictionary for History), review of Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika 16. stoletja by Branka Tafra (2021) in Slavistična revija (in Croatian, 2022)
- Jezik reformacije (The Language of the Reformation), featuring Kozma Ahačič, Andreja Legan Ravnikar, and Majda Merše on the television program Panoptikum on RTVSLO.SI (2021)
- 500 let rojstva Adama Bohoriča (The Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Adam Bohorič), featuring Kozma Ahačič on the educational and history series (Ne)znana poglavja slovenske zgodovine on RTVSLO.SI (2021)
- Dvojnice: inštrument ali instrument, start ali štart? (Doublets: inštrument or instrument, start or štart?), featuring Alenka Jelovšek on the radio program Jezikanje on VAL 202 (2021)
- Oživljeni Vodnik (Vodnik Revived), featuring Andreja Legan Ravnikar on the educational and history series (Ne)znana poglavja slovenske zgodovine on RTVSLO.SI (2019)
- Tikanje, vikanje, onikanje skozi čas (Informal, Formal, and Hyper-Formal Address over Time), featuring Alenka Jelovšek on the radio program Jezikovni pogovori on Radio Slovenija 3, ARS channel (2019)
- Pozabljene slovenske besede (Forgotten Slovenian Words), featuring Metod Čepar on the television program Dobro jutro on RTVSLO.SI (2019)
- Vodnik je prvi uvedel besedo slovar (Vodnik Was the First to Introduce the Word slovar), featuring Andreja Legan Ravnikar on the radio program Jezikovni pogovori on Radio Slovenija 3, ARS channel (2019)
- "Volk je pojedel vso kozo, mi pa en ves božični kolač": kakšna je prava uporaba pridevnikov cel in ves (“The Wolf Ate a Whole Goat, and We Ate a Whole Christmas Cake”: On the Correct Use of the Adjectives cel and ves), featuring Alenka Jelovšek on the program KiKs on Radio Prvi (2019)
- Slovnica kot uspešnica (A Grammar as a Best-Seller), featuring Kozma Ahačič on the radio program Jezikovni pogovori on Radio Slovenija 3, ARS channel (2017)
They also help create the Beseda tedna (Word of the Week) column in the print and online editions of the newspaper Delo.