Can Slovenians and Slovaks understand each other? Many people tend to mix Slovenia and Slovakia up with each other and do not know that they are two distinct countries that do not even share a border. However, despite being separate countries with their own language and culture, they have a lot in common. There are many similarities between Slovenian (slovenščina / slovenski jezik) and Slovak (slovenčina / slovenský jazyk) as they are both Slavic languages, but can Slovenian and Slovak speakers understand each other? In this episode we showcase some of the similarities and test the degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages. Ramona (Slovenian speaker) and Vlado (Slovak speaker) will each read statements in their respective languages to see how well they can understand one another.

Ramona's Linktree, YouTube channel, and Instagram page:
https://linktr.ee/RamonaIrgolic
   / ramonairgolic  
  / ramonairgolic  

Vlado's YouTube channel and Instagram page:
   / vladimirbizik  
  / vladimirbizikmusic  

Please contact us on Instagram if you speak a language that has not been featured on this channel and would like to participate in a future video:   / bahadoralast  

Slovene (Slovenian) is a South Slavic language primarily spoken in Slovenia, where it is one of the three official languages. Slovak (Slovakian) is a West Slavic language primarily spoken in Slovakia where it is the official language. Both Slovene and Slovak are among the official languages of the European Union.

Slovak and Slovene, just like all Slavic languages, descend from the protoSlavic group of languages that produced Old Church Slavonic. Despite having under 3 million native speakers, Slovene is often considered to be the most diverse Slavic language and believed to have around 50 different dialects. They are typically divided into 8 groups. The Upper Carniolan dialect group (gorenjska narečna skupina), spoken in most of Upper Carniola and in Ljubljana, the Lower Carniolan dialect group (dolenjska narečna skupina), spoken in most of Lower Carniola and in the eastern half of Inner Carniola, the Styrian dialect group (štajerska narečna skupina), spoken in central and eastern Slovenian Styria and in the Lower Sava Valley and Central Sava Valley, the Pannonian dialect group (panonska narečna skupina), spoken in northeastern Slovenia (Prekmurje, in the eastern areas of Slovenian Styria), and among the Hungarian Slovenes, the Carinthian dialect group (koroška narečna skupina), spoken by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, in Slovenian Carinthia, and in the northwestern parts of Slovenian Styria along the upper Drava Valley, and in the westernmost areas of Upper Carniola on the border with Italy, the Littoral dialect group (primorska narečna skupina), spoken in most of the Slovenian Littoral and in the western part of Inner Carniola, and in the Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia, and in the mountainous areas of eastern Friuli, the Rovte dialect group (rovtarska narečna skupina), and the Mixed Kočevje subdialects (mešani kočevski govori).

Slovak also contains many dialects, typically split into 4 groups, the Eastern dialects of Spiš, Šariš, Zemplín and Abov, the Central dialects of Liptov, Orava, Turiec, Tekov, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer and Zvolen, the Western dialects of Kysuce, Trenčín, Trnava, Nitra, and Záhorie, and the Lowland (dolnozemské) dialects outside Slovakia, in the Pannonian Plain in Serbian Vojvodina, and in southeastern Hungary, western Romania, and the Croatian part of Syrmia.