SAZU protest for language protection gains support
Ljubljana, 3 June - Slovenska Matica, the nation's oldest cultural and scientific society, and the Slovenian PEN association of writers have expressed support for a recent letter to the government and the Constitutional Court in which the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) calls for better protection of the Slovenian language.
"We support the demand that all documents, all digital applications in public use must be translated to Slovenian, the official language," Slovenska Matica said in a press release on Monday, five days after the original letter of protest was presented by SAZU.
"We call on inspection services to take immediate action against the use of foreign languages and on state bodies to adopt measures to protect the Slovenian language against the intrusion of other languages in public communication," said Slovenska Matica.
The Slovenian PEN centre meanwhile said that they "support the letter of protest completely".
Apart from demanding action from the authorities, the letter also urged the public to start looking after Slovenian in all areas of life.
Listing several examples demonstrating the negative trend, the petition mentions "an endless sea of English signs that pollute the language landscape", while it for instance also points out that Apple's operating systems have no Slovenian language support.