English is quietly making its way into Slovenian

The most obvious mistakes in Slovenian are easy to spot. More subtle outside influences are harder to see, yet they may eventually reach into the language’s core. That is why proofreading remains desirable, even in the age of artificial intelligence.

A slogan written without commas, “Let’s go, girl, to the southern lands,” once drew wide attention and sparked a debate over the boundary between rules and creative freedom. The question was whether deliberate mistakes can be acceptable when they serve a clear purpose.

Helena Dobrovoljc, head of the Language Advisory Service, says the number of mistakes in Slovenian is not growing, although some persist. Commas and prepositions are ultimately the least serious problem. Greater risks come from carelessness, lack of knowledge, insufficient proofreading and foreign-language structures that quietly become normal.

Because language is living and constantly changing, the boundaries between what is correct and incorrect also shift. The mistakes most visible to a casual reader may therefore be less important than changes that gradually alter the language beneath the surface.

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Let's go, girl, to the southern lands