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124 Slovenski iezik - Slovene Linguistic Studies 1 (1997)
state was to be strengthened by linguistic unity. The Slovenian clergy's, writers' and
intellectuals' attitudes towards suggestions for a common South Slavic literary language,
the topic of discussion in the present Paper, appear to be mostly rather skeptical
than friendly, and, while there were among the Slovenes men like Sebastian
Krelj in the 16th, Stanko Vraz and Matija Majar-Ziljski in the 19th and Fran IleSii:
in the 20th century, who played the parts of protagonists of a wider concept of literary
language, fusing the Slovene and the Croatian dialectal basis, there were 0thers
who took a minimalist point of view at least as decidedly, accepting nothing
outside the Slovene dialects as a basis for a literary language used by Slovenes. The
best known among them were Primus Truber, Jernej Kopitar, France Pregeren and
Ivan Cankar, and it was their minimalist notion of the Slovene literary language
that each time prevailed in the end. Now, at the end of the 20th century, the Slo-
Vene literary language is, for the first time in history, on its way towards validity in
all fields of private and public life in the Republic of Slovenia.