Italian language in Slovenia

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The municipalities in which the Italian language is co-official.

The Italian language is an officially recognized minority language, along with Hungarian in Slovenia.

[edit] Geographic Distribution and Population

Italian is co-official in three municipalities: Piran (Pirano), Koper (Capodistria) and Izola (Isola d'Istria), all in the slovenian portion of the peninsula of Istria. The Slovenian 2002 census reported 2,258 ethnic Italians in the country (0.11% of the total population). However, 3,762 people (0.2% of the total population and a slight dip from the number in the 1991 census) reported themselves to be mother tongue speakers of the language, of whom 1,832 were ethnic Italian, 1,195 were ethnic Slovenian, 34 were Croatian, and 37 belonged to an ethnicity that was not listed.

Of the total 3,762 Italian speakers in Slovenia, 2,853 live in one of the three municipalities where it is co-official: 1,174 in Pirano, 1,059 in Capodistria, and 620 in Isola d'Istria.

A multilingual sign in Slovenian and Italian (also partly in Croatian) near Koper.

[edit] Usage of Italian

Although most Slovenian government websites, such as the Government Communication Office are available only in Slovenian and English, the websites of the Isola, Pirano, and Capodistria have Italian versions as well. In addition, the Italian language is used on road signs in bilingual areas.

[edit] References

• Population by ethnic affiliation, Slovenia, Census 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2002
• Population by mother tongue, Slovenia, Census 1991 and 2002
• Population by mother tongue, municipalities, Slovenia, Census 2002