Spoken Slovene has at least 32 main dialects (narečje) (dI) and speeches (govor) (sP).

The main regional groups are:

1. koroško (Carinthian),
2. vzhodno (Eastern),
3. panonsko (severovzhodno) (Northeastern),
4. zahodno (Western),
5. osrednje (Central),
6. gorenjsko (of Upper Carniola),
7. belokranjsko (of White Carniola),
8. dolenjsko (of Lower Carniola),
9. primorsko (Littoral).

There are also local groups and subgroups (sG), such as the following, listed by region:

• Brkini
  • banjško (sP)
  • baško (sP)
  • borjansko
  • bovško
  • briško
  • brkinsko
• Bržanija (near Trieste)
  • bržansko
• Celje
  • celjsko
• Cerkljansko
  • cerkljansko
• Haloze
  • činžaško
  • čiško
  • črnovrško
  • goričansko
  • gradiščansko
  • haloško,
• Horjul
  • horjulsko
• Idrija
  • idrijsko,
• Slovene Istria
  • istrsko
• Notranjska
  • južno belokranjsko (sG)
  • južno notranjsko
• kapleško
• kobariško
• Kostel
  • kostelsko
• kozjansko - bizeljsko
• kozjaško (sP)
• Kranjska Gora
  • kranjskogorsko (sP)
• Kras (the Karst)
  • kraško
• Laško
  • laško (sP)
• Ljubljana
  • logaško
  • lovrenško
  • ljubljansko
• Maribor
  • mariborsko
• Mežica
  • medijsko
  • mežiško
  • mešano kočevsko (sP)
• Notranjska
  • nadiško
  • notranjsko
• along the Soča River
  • obirsko
  • obsoško
• Podjuna
  • podjunsko
• Pohorje
• južno pohorsko (sG)
  • pohorsko
• Panonsko
  • slovenskogoriško
  • prleško
  • prekmursko (sG), which is often considered an isolated dialect with its own literature. It is still spoken extensively in the Prekmurian region (Prekmursko) of Slovenia and adjacent areas of Hungary.
  • haloško
• Resia
  • puščavsko
  • remšniško
  • rezijansko
• Rižana
  • ribniško
  • rižansko (sP),
• Savinja Valley
  • rožansko
  • savinjsko
• Solčava
  • sevniško - krško (sP)
  • solčavsko (sP)
• Škofja Loka
  • selško
  • severno belokranjsko (sG)
  • severno pohorsko - remšniško
  • srednje beloknjanjsko (sG)
  • srednje savinjsko (sG)
  • srednje štajersko (sG)
  • šavrinsko (sP)
  • škofjeloško
• Tolmin
  • šokarsko
  • tersko
  • trbonsko
  • tolminsko
• Trbovlje
  • trboveljsko
• Vrtojba
  • vrtojbensko
  • vzhodno dolenjsko (sG)
  • vzhodno gorenjsko (sG)
  • vzhodno prleško (sG)
  • zagorsko - trboveljsko (sP)
  • zasavsko
  • ziljsko
  • zgornje savinjsko (sG)

The various dialects are so different from each other that a speaker of one dialect may have a very difficult time understanding a speaker of another, particularly if they belong to different regional groups. In such communication, standard Slovene is used per convention.

The dialects from the Carinthian region differ from each other less in their deep structure than in their vocal and lexical image; from literary language, however, they differ no more than the other marginal dialects .