The Slovene language lived in the form of intensely fragmented dialects and of rare weakly and unsystematically interconnected manuscripts until the middle of the 16th century. Primož Trubar decided to choose centrally anchored but supradialectal (supra-regional) language standards on the basis of his life experience – prior to converting to Protestantism, his life path had important stops in terms of dialects at many different corners of the Slovene territory, such as Raščica, Trieste, Radeče, Laško, Ljubljana, Celje and Šentjernej – as well as his religiously stimulated creativity and reasoned consideration. Supported by his inventiveness (use of print as the most advanced technique available at that time), economic entrepreneurship, diligence, speaking and musical talents, and physical and mental strengths, Trubar implemented this standard in more than twenty books with different types of text – from a primer to theological discussions, from narration to poetry, from calendars and registers to prayers. Through these books, he clearly addressed the Slovenes (those who could read) and thus acquired a sufficient number of strong supporters, eager imitators and successful developers (Krelj, Dalmatin, Bohorič and others) in spite of the weak echo of Protestant ideas among the majority of the population (90% farmers). His literary Slovene put down roots and “stood and withstood” also after the sunset of the Slovene Reformation, i.e. after the Habsburg monarch of the Inner Austrian Lands in 1599 decisively enforced the Peace of Augsburg rule on determining the serfs' religion and ordered Counter-Reformation commissions to burn Protestant books (Slovene and non-Slovene) and forcibly evict town dwellers and farmers who did not want to resign their Protestant faith.

In his public speaking and church-planting work, Trubar had in mind the common Slovene language environment, irrespective of feudal land borders; he was concerned about “the true divine church of this Slovene language”, whether in Carniola, Carinthia, Styria or elsewhere. When he lived abroad, he felt connected in good and bad times with this region, and expressed his love not only with his well-known address, “My dear Slovenes”; he also knew to praise enthusiastically this “good, decent, loyal, truthful, obedient, hospitable and gentle people”, to strive for its spiritual welfare (educational system) or to fully sympathise with it, for “we have trespassed more than others”.

Close connection with the Slovene environment did not prevent Trubar from being active in the European dimension, holding a self-confident pose among the most influential personalities of that time – from Erasmus of Rotterdam to King Maximilian II., from the humanist Bishop Pietro Bonomo to the theologians Matthias Flacius and Jacob Andreae. Particularly interesting was his large-scale regard for the south-east: cooperation in publishing Glagolitic and Cyrillic books, and attention to the Koran and Turkish Islam.


Why we remember


It is likely that the Slovenes as a nation would not exist today if Trubar's literary Slovene language had not been implemented, since the sense of belonging to the same nation and historical destiny would not otherwise have developed among the inhabitants of our regions due to the lack of other identification and integration factors. Instead of establishing a modern Slovene national identity (and building a state), the assimilation impacts of the numerically, politically and militarily stronger language communities and centres of attraction in our neighbourhood would probably have predominated. The validity of this literary language had to be recognised even by Protestant opponents (for example Counter-Reformation Bishop Tomaž Hren) and which facilitated its outgrowth into a continuous tradition of unified Slovene literary language development up to its present state – i.e. until it reached its cultural zenith as a flexible means of expression for understanding various subjects.

Statements about the expressive insufficiency of the Slovene language (e.g. it is not “good for business purposes” or “no top scientific articles can be written in Slovene”) or of its aesthetic inferiority (e.g. the Slovenian composition for the Eurovision song contest “simply sounds better in English”) or of its uneconomical use (“Printing posters in Slovene is costly and unnecessary, since we all understand English, don't we?”) are far from the truth.

Nowadays, foreigners learn Slovene (this was not the case in the past); if its use were uneconomical, this would not happen.

Had we been trying to choose the date for celebrating one of Trubar's jubilees, we couldn't have selected a more meaningful (date than this) one, which is at least partly defined by a historical coincidence of circumstances: the literary Slovene language – Trubar's heritage – has long been the strongest Slovene national bond and symbol. Since 1991 it has also been the official language of the Republic of Slovenia, since 2004 one of the official languages of the European Union, and, in 2008 – the international year of languages and during Slovenia's Presidency of the Council of the European Union – also one of the working languages of the body. The literary Slovene language, half a millennium since its appearance, has successfully asserted its use in the most distinguished language usage environments possible.

Today, crediting Primož Trubar and his Protestant co-workers for their literary language and also for wider cultural achievements is indisputable for all Slovenes, regardless of past religious battles or present ideological and political oppositions in Slovene society. On the occasion of the jubilee, we would like not only to revive the awareness of this work, but also to deepen our knowledge about it and about Trubar's contribution to the wider European horizon – or, as we could say today, to preserve cultural diversity within intercultural dialogue.

At present, information can be found in many books available on this topic; here we would like to list just a few of the most important scientific and popular books from the recent half-century.


Kozma Ahačič, Zgodovina misli o jeziku in književnosti na Slovenskem: protestantizem,
Ljubljana 2008

Igor Grdina, Od brižinskih spomenikov do razsvetljenstva, Maribor 1999

Helena Jazbec, Nemške izposojenke pri Trubarju, Ljubljana 1974

Mimi Malenšek, Plamenica, roman o Primožu Trubarju, Koper 1957

Majda Merše, France Novak, Francka Premk, Slovar jezika slovenskih protestantskih piscev 16. stoletja, poskusni snopič, Ljubljana 2001

Gerhard Neweklowsky, Trubarjev katekizem 1550: konkordance, indeks besed, pogostnostni spiski, Ljubljana 1984

Jože Pogačnik, Primož Trubar v besedi in sliki, Ljubljana 1986

Jože Rajhman: Prva slovenska knjiga v luči teoloških, literarnozgodovinskih, jezikovnih in zgodovinskih raziskav, Ljubljana 1977
Jože Rajhman (ur.), Pisma Primoža Trubarja, Ljubljana 1986

Jože Rajhman, Trubarjev svet, Trst / Ljubljana 1986

Jakob Rigler, Začetki slovenskega knjižnega jezika, Ljubljana 1968

Janez Rotar, Trubar in južni Slovani, Ljubljana 1988

Mirko Rupel, Slovenski protestantski pisci, Ljubljana 1966

Mirko Rupel, Primož Trubar, življenje in delo, Ljubljana 1962

Slovenci v evropski reformaciji šestnajstega stoletja (zbornik simpozija), Ljubljana 1986
Biblia Slavica, Serie IV: Südslavische Bibeln, Band 3,2: Kommentare (herausgegeben von Jože Krašovec, Majda Merše, Hans Rothe), Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich 2006


The most prominent forms of celebrating the jubilee (national and local celebrations, monument unveilings, publications dedicated to Trubar, etc.), with their emphasised symbolic value, are well grounded when functioning as incentives for further scientific examination of facts related to the central figure of old Slovene history, identification of his importance for the present time, and in particular, for raising our cultural, political and state-forming consciousness and for proving our actual dedication to the linguistic heritage of Trubar. This dedication should be expressed especially via learning, implementation and development of the Slovene language in all traditional and new areas opened up by social and technological development, when there is a question of “standing and withstanding” in the winds of globalisation. According to the vision of the Resolution on the National Programme for Language Policy, we acknowledge language and culture not only in their function as promoters of economic development and competitiveness, but also as an original and unsubjugated possibility of humanisation. Therefore, in the Year of Trubar, it is necessary to renounce carelessness in expression and thought, as well as any interests which judge the intact usage of the Slovene language, for example in science and higher education, and in the names of companies and public signs, to be “administrative obstacles” to the flow of knowledge and our international recognition. Instead we should recognise authentic agreed usage and the rights of needs of citizens and Slovene society as a whole for innovative expression, social inclusion, mastery of information and communication technology, enhanced social cohesion and individual personal development.


Text by Dr Janez Dular, published in Trubar's Year 2008, Ljubljana 2008.
(Dr Janez Dular: Whom, What And Why We Remember This Year)