Slovene language
- noun
- The Slovene language is the official language of Slovenia.
Examples
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The Slovene language is spoken by about 2.5 million people.
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Do you speak the Slovene language?
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Many residents of Ljubljana speak the Slovene language as their mother tongue.
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She is studying the Slovene language as part of her Slavic linguistics course.
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The official documents are translated into the Slovene language for government use.
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Many residents of Ljubljana speak the Slovene language as their mother tongue.
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She is studying the Slovene language as part of her Slavic linguistics course.
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the South Slavic language spoken primarily by the people of Slovenia' follows directly from combining 'Slovene' (denoting Slovenia/Slovene people or their language) with 'language' (a named spoken or written system). The compositional pattern 'X language' is cross-linguistically common and follows standard noun/adjective + noun composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Slovene language comes from the name Slovene, the word people in Slovenia use for themselves, and language meaning 'a way of speaking'. So it literally means 'the way of speaking of the Slovene people', which is why it refers to the language spoken in Slovenia today.