Carniola oživljena: Changing Practice in Citing Slovenian Regions in English Texts

Abstract

The past century has witnessed a striking change in the representation of Slovenia’s traditional regions in English texts. After the Second World War, Slovenians progressively replaced the traditional English exonyms for these regions with endonyms in English texts. This trend was accompanied by published works and teaching practice that increasingly insisted on the exclusive use of endonyms in English texts. However, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Slovenian independence, there has been a return to the traditional English exonyms. This article maps this changing practice through selected English texts from the past three centuries. It also addresses a number of pitfalls connected with the use of endonyms as well as persistent questions regarding the use of endonyms. Because English is a global language, the choices made by those writing in English directly affect how Slovenia and Slovenian identity are represented at the global level. As such, the conclusions of this paper apply directly to Slovenian-English translation practice and indirectly to Slovenian literature and culture conveyed through English translation.