Five months after the Slovenian parliament expanded provisions on the public use of the Slovenian language to modern digital gadgets, the US tech giant Apple has complied, making Slovenian available on devices that support the new iOS 18 mobile operating system.

Apple is the first major corporation to have compiled with the amended Public Use of the Slovenian Language Act, with the Culture Ministry expecting that other developers and manufacturers will soon follow suit.

The upgrade that included Slovenian in iPhone and iPad interfaces has been hailed as a milestone for the Slovenian language, the mother tongue of about two million people.

Like winning a World Cup

"For Slovenian, this is like winning the football World Cup," Kozma Ahačič, head of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language, commented for the public broadcaster TV Slovenija.

The efforts to get tech companies, in particular Apple, to make Slovenian available on their devices have been running for many years with advocates arguing it was unacceptable that Apple devices should support languages such as Croatian or Slovakian but not Slovenian.

Two other major operating systems, Windows and Android, have been available in Slovenian for many years.

However, Apple acted only after the Slovenian parliament passed amendments in early April that make operating systems in the Slovenian language mandatory for manufacturers selling their electronic consumer devices in the country.

When drafting the bill, Culture Minister Asta Vrečko met Apple officials in Brussels to present the requirements of the new law. She told them the new law would make support for Slovenian a legal obligation.

Cars to speak Slovenian too soon

The new language requirements also apply to several major car manufacturers that do not offer entertainment system menus in Slovenian. The companies have been given a transitional period to adjust.

Companies based outside of Slovenia, notably streaming giants such as Netflix and Disney, will not be affected even though a lot of criticism in the public debate on the bill focused on the absence of Slovenian subtitles on these platforms.

Thus all new cars should be able to speak Slovenian soon, but even streaming content providers could be next. "We will have to tackle this issue at European level and we are making the effort in various international organisations and with the help of members of the European Parliament," Ahačič said.

"The more Slovenian there is in the digital environment, the more unofficial pressure there is on everyone else to do the same," Lenart J. Kučić, who advises the culture minister on media policy, told TV Slovenija.

Officials also say that a Slovenian virtual assistant should be available soon.