Bohorič alphabet

Zdravljica by France Prešeren, first version in Bohorič alphabet

The Bohorič alphabet (Slovene: bohoričica) was an orthography used for the Slovene language between the 16th and 19th centuries. Its name stems from Adam Bohorič, who codified the alphabet in his 1584 book Articae Horulae Succisivae.

Bohorič was first used by Primož Trubar the author of the first printed book in the Slovenian language. However, Trubar didn't follow strict rules and often used alternate spellings for the same word.

The alphabet consists of 25 letters (among them 3 digraphs) in the following order:

a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p r ſ ſh s sh t u v z zh

The Bohorič alphabet differs from the modern Slovene alphabet in the following letters:

In early Bohorič some letters shared majuscule forms:

• I was the majuscule form of i and j
• V was the majuscule form of u and v
• S was the majuscule form of s and ſ
• SH was the majuscule form of sh and ſh

Bohorič was quite successful, but it suffered from two serious problems:

• The Slovenian language has eight vowels, but Bohorič only has five.
• Readers had trouble knowing when "sh" should be read as two separate letters or as a digraph.

These two problems proved to be fatal, and after experimenting with the Metelko and Dajnko alphabets Slovenes began using Gaj's Latin alphabet around 1850.