This phrase book will help you to communicate where Slovenian is spoken: in Slovenia, in the neighboring Trieste, Gorizia, and Udine provinces of Italy, and in Austrian Carinthia. Even a limited proficiency in Slovenian should go a long way toward making your trip both easier and more rewarding. It should save you time in finding what you want, whether it is a hotel room, a special dish on the menu or an item you are shopping for.
Conversational phrases anticipate situations you are likely to encounter, with comments on customs and lifestyle providing the necessary background information. Moreover, the booklet could be useful in planning your trip, since it covers places to see and things to do. Topics range from hunting, fishing, water sports, and skiing to spas, castles, musical events, folk festivals, and vacationing on the farm. There is a section to help those of Slovenian ancestry searching for their roots, another on letter writing, and yet another on Slovenian cooking, with recipes.
The book is designed for self-study. The recorded phrases should help you in mastering the pronunciation. Click on the active phrase where cursor changes to a palm and repeat aloud what you hear. Start with words in the chapter Slovenian alphabet and pronunciation, intended to familiarize you with the Slovenian pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet. From the beginning, try to place the stress on the right syllable. To make this easier, stressed vowels have been printed in distinct characters throughout the book. Note that conversational phrases are not word-by-word translations of English expressions, but, rather their idiomatic equivalents. You can search words and phrases through the menu or simply type the combination of keys <Control> and <F> and enter the text to find.
The writing of this book benefited from Miran Hladnik's experience as a lecturer in Slovenian at the University of Kansas and at the University of Pittsburg, Kansas, under the auspices of the American CIES (Council for the International Exchange of Scholars). Miran Hladnik is a professor of Slovenian literature at the University of Ljubljana. Toussaint Hočevar (1927-1987), the author of the majority of English text in the book, was a professor of economics at the University of New Orleans and the founder of the Society for Slovene Studies. Moreover, both authors are indebted to many colleagues and students for their valuable comments, especially to Timothy Pogacar and Michael Biggins for translating numerous phrases, Duška Primožič (†), Miha Bregant, Boštjan Lajovic, Marja Bešter and Velemir Gjurin, who have lent their voices for the audio recording. None of these persons is of course responsible for any errors which may still be lurking around.
For the CD- and web edition it was not possible to make new recordings; only some obsolete phrases were omitted. That is also the reason some useful proposals for corrections of the Slovenian part of the book made by Ms. Daša Komac were not taken into account; the remarks concerning the English part were accepted with appreciation. Thanks also to Marta and Marc Greenberg for proofreading the galleys.