The Slovenian language is one of the South Slavic languages and spoken by 2.5 million people worldwide. It is the official language of Slovenia and is also one of the 23 official languages of the European Union since 2004.
Until the 16th century, there were many dialects within the Slovene language. However, those dialects have since been unified into one language. Then, in the 19th century, the unified language was officially standardized.