This paper presents the borrowed agricultural lexis in the local dialect of Medana, in the Goriška Brda region. This is a border region in western Slovenia, in which the Slovene population has ...coexisted with its Romance neighbours, the Friulians, for centuries. A survey conducted in the village of Medana using two specialized questionnaires revealed that one-third of the total vocabulary collected was of Romance origin, with most lexemes being taken from Friulian, less so from Italian. Some of the lexemes are of German origin, borrowed from German linguistic varieties in different historical periods. All the borrowed lexemes belong to the group of so-called cultural borrowings which name previously unfamiliar concepts (in comparison to borrowings which replace elements which were already present in the language). That clearly indicates where innovations in agriculture (new tools, machines or methods of cultivation of land, new crops, etc.) came from at different periods of time.
Intensive agriculture causes nutrient leaching and accelerates erosion processes, which threatens the good quality status of surface waters, as proposed by the European Union (EU) Water Framework ...Directive. The purpose of this study was to define the impact of two alternative agricultural land-use change scenarios defined in a Municipal Spatial Plan on surface water quality by using the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. As experimental area, we chose a small Kožbanjšček stream catchment (1464 ha) situated in the Goriška Brda region in Slovenia. The area, due to favorable conditions for vineyards, is facing increasing deforestation. The change of 66.3 ha of forests to vineyards would increase the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads in the stream by 24.8%, 17.1%, and 10.7%, respectively. With the implementation of vegetative buffer strips as a mitigation measure of the current situation, we could reduce the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads by 17.9%, 11.1%, and 3.1%, respectively, while a combination of the two land-use change scenarios would result in a slight increase of the above-mentioned loads, corresponding to 0.61%, 2.1%, and 6.6%, respectively, compared to the baseline situation. The results confirm that, as we can increase pollution levels with deforestation, we can also reduce water pollution by choosing proper types of land management measures.
Important anniversaries of prominent historians have become traditional opportunities for the gift to the celebrator in the form of scientific contributions from his colleagues and the colleagues who ...have worked with him fruitfully or are still doing so. Marušičev zbornik is a tribute to one of the leading historians of the Slovene region in contact with its western neighbors, historian prof. Branko Marušič at the age of 80. He has created a very important oeuvre, while outlining basic research directions, which some have continued to gain. One of the prominent results of this “scientific transfer” is the present scientific monograph, with the highly significant subtitle, Zgodovinopisec zahodnega roba (The Historian of West Edge). In a single volume, it represents the contribution of different generations of historians to new insights into the history of coastal space, especially that of the borderland, which throughout history has encountered coexistence with “the other.” Different historical sources and their careful analyzes and interpretations, which the authors place in different time contexts, contribute to new or original scientific knowledge. The monograph is actual and important for the development of historiography, also because of the development of Slovenian scientific terminology.
Land development analyses play a fundamental role in understanding how land use change shapes the land, depending on continuously changing social, economic, and environmental factors that reflect the ...interests in space. It is especially important to follow land use changes in rural areas due to their role in food security, environmental hazards, cultural landscape preservation, etc. Continuous analyses and monitoring of land use changes allow for the identification and prevention of negative trends in land use (over intensification, land fragmentation, etc.) that might affect biodiversity, change physical and chemical properties of soil, causing soil degradation, change the spatial balance, stability and natural equilibrium in the rural area. The use of the cross-tabulation matrix methodology was suggested for land use change analyses. The methodology, when the cross-tabulation matrix elements are correctly interpreted, allows us to gain as much insight as possible in the process of land use change. This approach enabled a detailed analysis of vineyards in Goriška brda, Slovenia. It was found that the existing methodology fails to analyse the location of change. For this reason, additional analyses of spatial distribution of change and of the locations where changes in space occur were suggested. The study demonstrated that the land use category of vineyards changes systematically, although seemingly randomly. By comparing land use categories over several time periods, the study determined that the size and speed of change varied across different time intervals. The identified land use changes were assessed in the context of their high pressure on agricultural land. The results of the analyses showed different trends shaping the typical agrarian landscape in Goriška brda.
The book describes the role of singing and (folk) songs in the Gorizia Hills (Goriška brda) within the processes of shaping the political nation and facilitating national identification in the second ...half of the nineteenth century. In addition to the use of the Slovene language at school and church and defining Slovene as the language of common use in censuses, national activists encouraged inhabitants to express identification with the singing of Slovene “folk” songs. Therefore they promoted the performances of choirs and tried to sweep-out the singing of non-Slovene songs - especially Friulian and Italian. The singing outside the reading and singing societies was influenced by the way of life, which was strongly marked by the system of tenant farming. The book also presents the research of folk songs in the Gorizia Hills, with special emphasis on short songs with strong dialect features, which in everyday life of the inhabitants complemented the repertoire of folk and religious songs known in the wider Slovenian territory.