coolasfcuk: Thanks for the interesting facts and the links. Infact I will use one of your great links to copy/paste something about slovenian language:
Origin
Publishing in Slovene began in 1551 with a catechism and an ABC. The first Slovene translation of the bible was published in 1584. In 1811, Slovene was adopted as the language of education, administration and the media and later became the official language of Slovenia.
Used to write:
Slovene (Slovenљиina), a Southern Slavonic language spoken by about 2 million people in the Slovenia. There are also communities of Slovene speakers in Austria, Hungary and Italy. Other Southern Slavonic languages include Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian.
Sample text in Slovene
Vsi ljudje se rodijo svobodni in imajo enako dostojanstvo in enake pravice. Obdarjeni so z razumom in vestjo in bi morali ravnati drug z drugim kakor bratje.
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Here are some facts I still remember from the top of my head:
First mentioning of slovene language is from a seremon in writing called "Brizinski spomeniki" from around the year 1000. As
cool mentioned slavic people were being baptised some by Eastern Byzantian Empire (ortodox), and some by Western Byzantian Empire (catolics) - like us. The catolic preachers, who were trying to turn slavics to christianity (we were pagans before) thought that it would be a good idea if the masses were held in the native tongue of the people. And so "Brizinski spomeniki" were born - first writing in slovene; although that wasn't real slovene yet, it was like I've said "old-catolic slavic
.
First publishing in slovenian was done thanks to reformation movement across europe at the time. The reformatory priest Primoz Trubar published Katekizem and the alphabet, to bring faith closer to the masses. Then Jurij Dalmatin translated the bible 1584.
It's funny how all the southern slavic languages were greatly infuenced by religion and was left of the roman empire.