Summary
e paper discusses Slovene-English language contact in general and English loanwords in 
Slovene in particular. e focus is on recent loanwords, where a great deal of variability in their 
pronunciation and spelling can be observed depending on the time of their borrowing, the 
channel of transmission (oral or written) and the degree of their linguistic and social integration 
into Slovene. Sociolinguistic variables such as the age and education of the users play a role as well, 
as do the differences between the phonological and orthographic systems of the two languages. 
In addition to phonological, morphological and orthographic aspects of English loanwords, their 
meaning and its occasional adaptations and modifications will be addressed. Data for illustration 
purposes will be taken primarily from the media, especially electronic ones (blogs, forums), since 
this is the field in which various forms of loanwords feature most frequently. 
Key words: Slovene-English language contact, loanwords, vocabulary, integration, language 
development
 
 Povzetek
Avtorica se ukvarja z vprašanjem jezikovnih stikov na splošno, bolj podrobno pa z sposojenkami 
iz angleščine v slovenščino. Poudarek je na novejših sposojenkah, kjer opažamo visoko stopnjo 
variabilnosti v izgovorjavi in pisavi, kar je odvisno od njihove starosti, od načina prenosa (ustni ali pisni) 
in od stopnje njihove jezikovne in družbene integracije v slovenščino. Prav tako igrajo pomembno 
vlogo dejavniki, kakršni so starost in izobrazba uporabnikov ter glasoslovne in pravopisne razlike med 
obema jezikoma. Poleg glasoslovnih, oblikoslovnih in ortografskih vidikov angleških sposojenk se 
avtorica dotakne tudi pomena in njegovih občasnih prilagajanj in modifikacij. Ponazoritveni podatki 
so vzeti v glavnem iz medijev, zlasti elektronskih (blogi, forumi), saj je to področje, kjer se sposojenke 
v različnih oblikah najpogosteje pojavljajo.  
Ključne besede: slovensko-angleški jezikovni stik, sposojenke, besedje, integracija, jezikovni razvoj
 DOI: 10.4312/elope.6.1-2.19-27

Loanwords or borrowings represent an interesting and often intriguing part of any language’s 
vocabulary. In this respect, Slovene is no exception. If we focus on borrowing from English, 
we see that the first English loanwords were accepted into Slovene as early as the 17
th
 and 18
th
 
centuries. #ey were not very numerous, though, and were adopted mostly from written sources 
and more often than not via an intermediary or mediating language such as German. Among 
the examples of such loans are the words šport and keks (Šabec 2005). #e phenomenon of 
borrowing from English is thus by no means new; the extent to which it has intensified in the 
past few decades, however, has exceeded anything seen in the past and would have been hard 
to imagine half a century ago. #is is of course due mostly to the impact of globalization and 
heightened exposure to English in practically all areas of life. We thus witness the importation 
of new words of English origin into Slovene on an almost daily basis. Naturally, some genres 
and registers are more susceptible to borrowing than others. #us, the frequency of English 
loanwords is particularly high in the media, especially new electronic ones such as internet blogs 
and forums, and also in the spoken, often slangy language of the young, particularly teenagers. 
 Once English words are borrowed into Slovene, they may undergo very diverse and interesting 
changes. A number of factors affect their development, from linguistic to sociolinguistic 
ones. #e former refer to the degree of compatibility between the two languages in terms of 
their phonological and orthographic systems, the latter to the age of loanwords and various 
characteristics of their users such as their age, education (especially their proficiency in English) 
and their attitudes toward English/American language and culture. 
Compared to the phonologically, morphologically and orthographically totally integrated and 
well-established loanwords that no longer sound foreign and that are in fact treated like any other 
word in Slovene, recent loanwords are much more unstable. #is instability and variability can 
be observed on various levels from spelling to pronunciation. 
For the purpose of this article, we will only briefly touch upon the older, fully integrated loanwords 
so as to be able to compare them to the more recent ones which are the focus of our discussion. 
 #ese are the loanwords that have been successfully integrated into Slovene and that adhere, in 
their usage, to the rules of Slovene grammar. Generally, speakers, even if they might be aware of 
the foreign origin of the words in question, do not treat them any differently from the rest of the 
Slovene vocabulary.
 #e pronunciation of older loanwords is typically characterized by the replacement of English 
phonemes by their nearest Slovene equivalents.
e.g. the English word thriller is pronounced as /tri:ler/

In addition to the difference in the vowel quality (short /ɪ/ in English vs. long /i:/ in Slovene; 
semi-vowel /ǩ / in English vs. /ɛ/ in Slovene), the most salient difference occurs in the replacement 
of the English fricative /θ/ by the Slovene dental stop /t/. 
Other typical Slovene deviations are also common in the pronunciation of English loanwords. 
For purposes of illustration, just a few are listed: 
• the under-differentiation of vowel contrasts: / ɪ, i:/ > /i:/  
 e.g. chip/s > čip/s
• a closer realization of some vowel phonemes /ǽ/ > /e, ɛ/
 e.g. band > bend 
• a simplification of certain diphthongs /ou > o/
 e.g. goal > gol
• the pronunciation of final -ng as /ŋk/ instead of /ŋ/
 e.g. /iŋ/ > /iŋk/
Occasionally, differences in word stress and intonation can be found as well. 
e.g. Canberra pronounced as /kan’bera/ instead of as /’kanbǩ rǩ /
 Orthographically, older loanwords are stable and in most cases consistently spelt in the same way. 
Typical English letters that do not exist in Slovene are replaced by their Slovene near-equivalents 
(weekend > vikend, boycott >bojkot, sherry > šeri, Chicago > Čikago, coca-cola > koka kola). #e 
same applies to combinations of double consonants and vowels (tennis > tenis, boomerang > 
bumerang). 
It should be noted that in some cases we observe double or even multiple orthographic forms of 
certain loanwords such as team vs. tim, but this phenomenon is far less common than in the case 
of less stable recent loanwords. 
 As for morphology, older loanwords follow the morphological rules of Slovene: nouns are 
inflected for gender, number and case (the same applies to some adjectives such as kompatibilen-
na/-no from compatible, but not to others such as izi and fensi from easy and fancy), and verbs for 
the category of gender, person, number as well as tense, aspect and mode. Rules of agreement 
are generally applied in the case of nouns, some adjectives, and verbs. However, we should point 
out an interesting aspect regarding gender assignment of nouns borrowed from English. While 
animate nouns represent no problem, inanimate nouns which are, as a rule, neuter in English, 
fall into either masculine or feminine in Slovene (there are no occurrences of the third category, 
neuter). #e criteria for gender assignment may depend on various factors from similarity of 
phonological shape of the nouns to (semantic) analogy, homophony and shape of suffix (Poplack 
et al. 1988, Winford 2003). 

Examples: 
• yacht > jahta (feminine on the analogy of semantically similar Slovene nouns such as ladja/ 
ship, jadrnica/sailboat)
• shock > šok (masculine due to the suffix form)
• Parkirali so kar ob cesti in si privoščili dva sendviča in okusen hamburger. (agreement of nouns, 
adjectives and verbs)
    /$ey parked by the road and ate two sandwiches and a tasty hamburger./
Similarly, loanwords follow the same word formation patterns as native words. Older loanwords 
may thus, for instance, be used as a base to form compounds or derive new words.
e.g. hockey > hokej, hokejist (a hockey player), hokejsko prvenstvo (a hockey championship), hokej 
na ledu (ice hockey), hokej na travi (field hockey)
 In addition to loanwords, Slovene has a number of calques or loan translations from English. 
#ese are word-by-word translations from English, where the English elements are literally 
replaced by Slovene ones.
e.g. brainwashing – pranje možganov
 Compared to older loanwords, more recent ones are more susceptible to variation than older 
ones. #ey are usually borrowed directly from English either through oral sources or through the 
Internet, which is why they are much closer to the original than the older loanwords (which were 
often modified due to the mediating language and/or the general distance between the donor 
and the recipient languages).  
 #e pronunciation of recent loanwords is typically very unstable, depending largely on the 
linguistic competence of the speakers. #is is generally higher with younger speakers who learn 
English at school, with more educated ones and those who are more mobile. In all cases, however, 
the comparison with the pronunciation of older loanwords shows that recent loanwords imitate 
their English models much more closely.  
e.g. notebook > /noutbuk/ 
In the first syllable, /o/ is pronounced as /ou/ rather than as /o/, which would have been more 
likely in the case of older loanwords.
#e degree of adaptation to Slovene or lack of it thus reflects the closeness of the speakers’ contact 
with English. In addition, their attitudes matter: they are mostly young and have, because of 
their exposure to the English/American language and culture, a generally greater affinity for it.

#e unstable, changeable character of recent loanwords is perhaps most obvious in spelling, 
where loanwords often occur in multiple orthographic shapes and forms. #e following examples 
illustrate the co-existence of various forms spelt not only with Slovene graphemes, but even those 
with English ones. 
e.g. show/šou/šov; software, softver; mobbing/mobing; tatoo/tatu; muffin/mafin
Most typically, however, recent loanwords remain in their original English form. In the media, 
they are often written in inverted commas, in italics or they may even be accompanied by a gloss 
or a footnote, signalling their foreignness and occasionally the writers’ attempt to explain them 
to the potential audience (in most cases, however, the addressee’s understanding of the words is 
taken for granted).  
Examples: 
• Nekoč so mariborska podjetja propadala, zdaj baje cvetijo - tudi ali predvsem zato, ker se 
"outsourcajo" (selijo proizvodnjo v države s cenejšo delovno silo). (Večer, 13. 9. 2008, 18)
      /In the past, the Maribor companies went bankrupt; today they supposedly flourish      
      due to "outsourcing" (moving production to the countries with cheaper labor.)
• … ki bo ob takšnem tempu potrebovala vsaj dve sezoni, da bo serija dobila oznako dostojnega 
"spin-offa"! (TV Večer, 11. 9. 2008, 16)
      /….that would at this pace need at least two seasons for the series to be labeled as    
      a decent "spin-off"!/
• … kajti ta mladina se ne zna sprostiti ob milk-shaku, temveč ob drogah, tatoojih in    
      naslajanju nad tujo usodo. (TV Večer, 12. 9. 2008, 17)
      /…because these young cannot relax drinking milk-shakes, instead they need 
      drugs, tatoos and gloating over other people’s misfortune./
• Da je posredi vnaprejšnja ignoranca, kaže tudi flop z navajanjem Pekarne kot avtorja projekta… 
(Večer, 10. 9. 2008, 14)
 /#e flop with citing Pekarna as the author of the project is proof of apriori ignorance…/
• "Search engine marketing" je oblika trženja prek spletnih iskalnikov. (www.žurnal24.si, 13. 
9. 2008, 35)
       /”Search engine marketing” is a kind of marketing via internet search engines./
• Imam vsaj dve vrsti odzivov pri polarizaciji, to je tiste, ki se pridružijo zmagovalcem in 
ker nočejo glasovati za poražence, in drugo vrsto odziva, to so tisti, ki ne želijo podpreti 
zmagovalcev, ampak volijo 'underdoge', torej tiste, ki jim gre slabše. (Večer, 15. 9. 2008, 3)
 /#ere are at least two kinds of reaction toward polarization: some join the    
 winners and do not want to vote for the losers, others do not want to support the  
       winners, but prefer to vote for the ‘underdogs’, that is, those who are not doing so well./

• Prva žrtev sindroma izgorelosti (burn-out syndrome) v javnem sektorju? (Delo, SP , 3. 1. 2009, 2)
 /#e first victim of the burn-out syndrome in the public sector?/
It should be noted that English spelling and punctuation occasionally also affect the spelling of 
Slovene words, especially in advertising and in names of companies and products (to achieve 
special effect) as well as in blogs and forums, where mostly the young use it as a kind of  affectation 
and a sign of being "in."
Examples: 
• O'glasna pošta (advertisement for postal gift services with a redundant apostrophe and a 
possible word play on the words meaning glas/voice and oglas/advertisement)
• T ri sobni apartma, plazma v vsaki sobi, spa & dodobra založena kuhinja, v resortu še obvezna 
savna in bazenček (http://trik.sopca.com; posted September 4, 2008)
 /A three-bedroom suite with a plasma in each room, spa & well-stocked kitchen, with an 
adjoined sauna and a small swimming pool in the resort/
• tyashy, kayica, ovchka (usernames/nicknames on forums and blogs with frequent omission of 
Slovene letters š,č,ž and the use of English ones: x,y,w)
 In view of their newness, recent loanwords show a much lesser degree of integration and often 
resist the inflectional patterns of Slovene. #is is not surprising, as some are only used on one or 
a couple of occasions, for reasons of prestige or with a specific audience in mind. #eir fate is in 
fact uncertain and it is not clear which ones will take root and which ones will fall into oblivion. 
According to Gorlach (2004, 4), they “do not usually become part of the core vocabulary and 
are therefore open to being quick imports (because of the novelty or fashionable appeal of the 
concepts and words) and equally to being quickly lost (because the things designated go out of 
use or the terms are replaced by more trendy and attractive ones)”. While this statement is largely 
true, counterexamples of widely used words such as “internet” can be found as well.
Examples:
• ….SNS pa je tradicionalno 'antiestablishment' stranka, kar privablja določen odstotek 
volilcev. (Večer, 15. 9. 2008, 3)
 /…SNS is traditionally an 'antiestablishment' party, which attracts a certain     
      percentage of voters./
• Dostop do vrhunskega tujega know-how-a. (election campaign leaflet)
 /Access to top-notch foreign know-how./
As for word-formation, recent English loanwords are less prone to form derivatives and 
compounds than older ones due to their lower degree of integration into Slovene. #ere are 
exceptions, however, such as the extremely productive blog, which has formed an entire word 
family. Stramljič Breznik (2008, 155–6) cites the following derivatives, compounds and blends: 

blogada, blogajna, blogastično, blogat, blogataš, blogator, blogocizem, blogika, bloginja, bloginje, 
bloginjščica, blogirati, blognat, blogniti, blognje, blogok, blogji, blogon, blogovina, blogovišče, blogovit, 
blogovnica, blogovski, blogulja, blogun, bložanski, bložki, zablogiran, zablogiranec; brezbložje, 
medbložje, pribložje; blogodajalec, blogaboječ, blogodržec, blogofil, blogoglasno, blogojemalec, 
blogokleten, blogoskop, Blogoljub, Blogoljuba, blogoljuje, blogologija, blogolom, Blogomil, blogomor, 
blogopis, blogopisec, blogoskrunstvo, blogoslovje, blogoslužje, blogostrastno, blogosumje, blogošpegec, 
blogotaj, blotgotišje, blogotožje, blogotrebec, blogotvorec, blogovid, blogoznanstvo, blogodržen, 
blogomrzje, enobloštvo, mnogobloštvo; deblogirati, izblogirati, najbolgji, Nebložje, poblogati se, 
razblogirati, sobložje, trnasblogirati, zablogati se, hvala-blogu, zabloga, blogme, blogsigavedi and 
blogopališče (from blog + pokopališče). 
 Recent calques seem to be more numerous than the old ones, which can be attributed to much 
closer contact with the English/American culture in the globalized context of today than was the 
case in the past. 
e.g. hate speech – sovražni govor
At times, they co-exist with other English-based loanwords.
e.g. public relations/odnosi z javnostjo/javnostmi/ PR/piarovstvo
Due to their relative newness, calques are frequently less stable and less consistent; some may be 
even modified and quite unfamiliar to those who are not able to decipher their meaning from 
either the context or from English. 
A good example is the sentence: Mitja Gaspari, nekdanji finančni minister in guverner Banke 
Slovenije, na Bajukovo sporočilo potrošnikom, kupujte z nogami: “Upoštevajte pravila, kupujte z 
nogami, je dobro za rekreacijo.” (Večer, 13. 9. 2008, 46). 
/Mitja Gaspari, the former minister of finance and governor of the Bank of Slovenia reacted to 
Bajuk’s message to consumers to buy with their feet by saying, “Follow the rules, buy with your 
feet, it’s good recreation.”/
/#e original English to vote with one’s feet (i.e. to show that you do not support something, 
especially an organization or a product, by not using or not buying it anymore. (Cambridge 
International Dictionary of Idioms 1998) has been replaced by to buy with one’s feet in Slovene 
to fit the context.
A similar case where we cannot help but guess at the influence of the English word backyard on the 
use of zadnje dvorišče is the sentence: Evropski državljani se morajo končno naučiti, kaj se dogaja na 
njhovem zadnjem dvorišču, ki ga tako radi razglašajo za izvir svoje kulture. (Večer, 3. 1. 2009, 8)
/European citizens should finally learn what is going on in their backyard that they so often 
proclaim as the source of their culture./

#e noun dvorišče is highly unlikely to be premodified by the adjective zadnje in Slovene, 
especially since the first translation option for the word zadnje that comes to mind is last rather 
than back (back in turn being translated as zadaj). 
 Semantically, English loanwords cover a wide range of domains from science and technology 
to popular culture. Rapid technological development, all sorts of technical innovations, new 
devices, the Internet and increasing mobility have changed our lifestyle in a way that has made 
at least some English almost a necessity for a large part of the world’s population. #is is true 
especially of the young, where in the case of Slovene the impact of English on their slang has to 
be pointed out as well. We list some examples from internet blogs and forums, where English 
frequently serves to make discourse more concise, technical, creative, playful and/or slangy.
Examples:
• fejker, glistafashionista, zadetaodlajfa (bloggers’ names)
• lahko jest furam kaj jest vem kak lajfstajl pa mi ne bo nič dost pomagal  (www.gape.org./egi-
bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1093341324/30; posted October 26, 2005)
      /I can lead I don’t know what kind of lifestyle and it won’t really matter/
• Letos bo kot lani potekalo 4 dni, od četrtka do nedelje, free camping, upam, da nam bo 
uspelo spet zrihtat. Novost bo jumpbox objekt (objekt ima “quoter”, flet, lending…tak objekt 
je narejen za letet, heh) (http://obala.net/blog/user.php?user=pivo; posted 28. 6. 2007)
 /Just like last year it will go on for 4 days, from #ursday to Sunday, free camping, I hope 
we can pull it off again. What is new is a jumpbox object (the object has a “quarter”, a flat, 
landing…..the kind of object that is made for flying, hah!/
• Ponedeljek, spet šola - o fakkk!! Zjutri šetkam do avtobusne postaje, in tam stoji en…čuden 
tip, tak psycho look je mel…yuck… (www.diva.si/blog.php?akcija=avtor &user_id=5033); 
posted September 22, 2008)
     /Monday, school again - oh,  fuck!! In the morning I walk down to the bus stop and    
     there stands some…weird guy, with a psycho look about him…yuck…/
Finally, both older and recent loanwords occasionally undergo semantic changes when compared 
to their original meanings in English. #us the word šoping (Eng. shopping), for instance, has a 
somewhat more frivolous connotation than nakupovanje, the word manager a more fashionable 
feel to it than direktor, the word juice a more restricted meaning (referring exclusively to orange 
juice) and the word toast a broader meaning in Slovene than in English (referring to a toasted 
ham-and-cheese sandwich). 
 What does the future hold for English loanwords? #e only certainty is that there will be more of 
them. As to which ones will become integrated, which ones will continue to co-exist or even take 
precedence over Slovene ones and which will turn out to be just a passing phenomenon we can 
only speculate. One criterion that might play a role in determining this is their relevance: those 

that either fill lexical gaps in certain domains (for instance, technical and scientific terminology) 
or contribute to the stylistic richness and specialization of the language are likely to persist, while 
some fashionable ones that are perceived as “unnecessary” or “too far fetched” may not – at least 
not in the long run. In either case it is a fact that English is currently the most important donor 
of new words to both Slovene and many other languages, which is why the continuous study 
of English loanwords and related processes is of great relevance to a better understanding of 
language development and change, thus remaining a constant challenge for linguistic research.