Language Contact: German and Slovenian

Slovenian has been in contact with German for approximately a millenium and a half. During this time, this contact has been realized through geographical proximity, social contact with German, German enclaves in Slovenian ethnic territory, and widespread bilingualism in Slovenia. This study examines non-lexical influences of German on the Slovenian standard language and dialects using a methodology based on markedness, universals, and cross-linguistic comparison. This recognizes that some phenomena common to German and Slovenian may also arise by chance and, in addition to direct influence, German may function as catalyst for the realization of latent features in Slovenian. The analytical portion of the study examines and evaluates the influence of German in Slovenian phonology, morphology, syntax, syntagms, and collocations and semantics. It is demonstrated that Geman influence is primarly manifested in Slovenian at the "higher" levels. In contrast, the "lower" levels apear to have been less susceptible to German influence.