A linguistic analysis of twenty towns in the area that is now known as Slovenia is based on
reports on the use of languages, and on an analysis of residents’ surnames. The results have
shown that the well-known dichotomy between the Kranjska and the Štajerska provinces, that
is the use of the »Slovene versus the German« from the decades before the monarchy had
disintegrated, originated during the centuries before the formation of the so-called modern
national awareness. While the type of a town with a pronounced emphasis on Slovene characteristics
was prevalent in Kranjska (11 of 13 towns), this type was in the minority in the area of
Štajerska (2 of 7 towns); in Štajerska all larger towns were either of the emphatically German
type (2), or bilingual (3).