Prekmurje Slovenes

The Prekmurje Slovenes (Slovene: Prekmurci, Prekmürci, Prekmörci, Prekmörge) are Slovenes from Prekmurje in Slovenia and Vendvidék and Somogy in Hungary. The Prekmurje Slovenes speak the Prekmurje Slovene dialect and have a common culture. The Hungarian Slovenes (Porabski Slovenci) and Somogy Slovenes also speak the Prekmurje Slovene dialect.

The Prekmurje Slovenes are descendants of the Slovenes of Lower Pannonia (Slovene Spodnja Panonija, Prekmurje dialect Spoudnja Panonija, ), who were vassals of the Frankish Empire in the 9th century. The Magyars conquered Lower Pannonia in 900, and many of the Slovenes were assimilated. However, the Prekmurje Slovenes in the vicinity of the Mura River maintained their identity.

The dialect spoken by the Prekmurje Slovenes, in the absence of contacts with other Slovenes, began to diverge from the standard Slovene (Carniolan) dialect. Nevertheless, contacts were maintained with other Slovene areas such as Lower Styria, Maribor, and Ljutomer. In the Middle Ages the Bishopric of Győr applied the name "Tótság" to the Slovene parishes in Vas County, and this name was later also applied to the Slovene areas in Zala County. At that time, ethnic Slovene territory extended to Burgenland and Őrség. In the 12th to 13th centuries, a Slovene community lived near Szentgotthárd Abbey.

In the 16th century Protestantism spread among the Hungarian Slovenes. The Protestant Slovenes were the first to publish in their mother tongue. In the 18th century they already had their own identity, referred to as (Vogrszki szlovenszki) 'Hungarian Slovenes' by István Küzmics in the Predgovor (Foreword) of Nouvi Zákon. The Catholic translator and writer Miklós Küzmics also demonstrated that the Slavic people of Carniola, Styria, Tótság and Somogy are Slovenes too, but Hungarian Slovenes with their own language: Who will disallow those Slovenes who live between the Mura and the Raba the right to translate these holy books into the language, in which they understand God talking to them through prophets and apostles' letters? God tells them too to read these books in order to get prepared for salvation in the faith of Jesus Christ. But they cannot receive this from Trubar's, Dalmatin's, Francel's, or other translations (versio).