This article deals with the language choice made by Boris Pahor, which is a key decision every multilingual writer has to take. By considering the objective and subjective factors influencing Pahor's choice – from the socio-political and historical Triestine context to Pahor's biographical aspects – I demonstrated that the motivations for writing and the symbolic relation with Slovene played a more significant role than the writer‘s linguistic skills. Pahor's written skills in Italian could at some point in writer's life have been more advanced than his Slovenes. Slovene, on the other hand, was the language he had to re-learn almost as a self-taught person. However, what determined Pahor‘s decision to write his novels in Slovene has to do with his need to strongly affirm hisneglected identity.Prispevek obravnava izbiro jezika pri Borisu Pahorju. Tovrstna izbira je ključna odločitev vsakega večjezičnega pisatelja. Ob upoštevanju objektivnih in subjektivnih dejavnikov, ki so vplivali na Pahorjevo odločitev (od tržaškega družbenega, političnega in zgodovinskega konteksta pa vse do biografskih vidikov), sem pokazala, da sta imela motivacija za pisanje in Pahorjev simbolični odnos do slovenščine pomembnejšo vlogo kot njegove jezikovne veščine. Pahorjeva izurjenost v pisni uporabi italijanščine bi bila lahko v nekem trenutku njegovega življenja boljša od njegove slovenščine. Druga je bila namreč jezik, ki se ga je moral ponovno naučiti – skoraj kot samouk. Toda kar je odločilno vplivalo na njegov sklep, da bo svoje romane pisal v slovenščini, ima opraviti z nujo, da svojo zapostavljeno identiteto karseda močno izpriča
