Which slavic language is the closest to Slovene?

[klemen]

Which slavic language is the closest to Slovene (without bias of learning it at school or being a "co-official language" which was the case of serbian/croatian in the times of socialist Yugoslavia in Slovenia)?

I think that Slovenes would understand Czech or Slovak as well as we understand Croatian/Serbian now if Czech or Slovak was taught at school and was official language, for example in military ...)

 

[Lorenc]

Hello klemen, the intellegibility of Slovene with other slavic languages has been discussed a few times on this forum, e.g. here and here. I don't know Slovene but from what I've read the contenders for 'closest' language are Serbo-Croatian and Slovak. Note that there is no exactly defined concept of `closeness' for languages, depending on the feature you're focusing on (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary...) you might get different results.

 

[Apollodoros]

I'd say Kajkavian Croatian is pretty close, then perhaps Shtokavian with Slovak and Czech closely following...

 

[markomario]

If I read a text in Slovenian, let's say, a newspaper article, I understand maybe 60-70%. I tried reading newspaper articles in Czech or Slovak and I understand barely 30-40%.
I think Slovenian is closest to Croatian. And the proof is the kajkavian dialect of Croatian since it is on the dialect continuum with Slovenian. The speakers of kajkavian dialect understand Slovenian much better than speakers of shtokavian. I am talking about true kajakvian dialect in North Croatia, that is still used in villages in Zagorje and Međimurje.

 

[matiassko]

Yes I agree with markomario. I am from Slovakia, but Slovenian is totally different. We use some similar words and expressions, but I've been in Slovenia on holiday and I rather use English than Slovak-Slovenian. Closest is Croatian.

Note: with rising levels of alcohol my Slovenian was better a better. I recommend!