Spoken in: Slovakia, United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Serbia, Romania, Hungary etc.

Region: Central Europe.

Total speakers: over 6 million.

Language family: Indo-European, Slavic, West Slavic, Czech-Slovak, Slovak.

Official status
Official language in: European Union, Slovakia, Vojvodina (Serbia).

Regulated by: Slovak Academy of Sciences (The Ľudovít Štúr Linguistic Institute)

The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk), sometimes referred to as "Slovakian", is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Kashubian and Sorbian). Slovak is mutually intelligible with Czech.

Slovak is spoken in Slovakia (by 5 million people), the United States (500,000, emigrants), the Czech Republic (320,000, due to the former Czechoslovakia), Hungary (20,000, due to former unitary state), Northern Serbia-Vojvodina (60,000, due to Austria-Hungary), Romania (22,000, due to A-H), Poland (20,000), Canada (20,000, emigrants), Australia (emigrants), Austria, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia (5,000) and some other countries.


Orthography

The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle (that is "Write as you hear") – as opposed to the English spelling where the etymological principle is primary. The secondary principle is the morphological principle (that is, all forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently in reality) – the main example is the assimilation rule (see Pronunciation). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use of i after certain consonants and of y after other consonants, although both i and y are pronounced the same way. And finally there is the rarely applied grammatical principle, under which, for example, there is a difference in writing (but not in the pronunciation) between the basic singular and plural form of masculine adjectives, for example pekný (nice – sg.) vs pekní (nice – pl.), both pronounced .

Most foreign words receive Slovak spelling immediately or after some time, for example "weekend" is víkend, "software" is softvér (but some 15-years-ago was spelled the English way), and "quality" is spelled kvalita (different sound; possibly from Italian qualità). However, personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep their original spelling, unless there is a fully Slovak form for the name (for example Londýn for "London").

Slovak orthography has changed many times. One of the most important changes was after World War II when s began to be written as z where pronounced as in prefixes, for example smluva into zmluva, sväz into zväz. (That is, the phonemic principle has been given priority over the etymological principle in this case.)

Interestingly, the Slovak alphabet (minus the vowel diacritics) is often used to transcribe Russian into the Latin alphabet.


History of the Slovak language

The Slovak language arose directly from the Proto-Slavic language independently of other Slavic languages.

The present-day Slovak language is closely related to the other west Slavic languages.

Nowadays Czechs and Slovaks have more common words due to their long historic coexistence and language standardization policies before but especially within the now-defunct country of Czechoslovakia. Slovak is most apparently related to Czech in written form (because the Slovak literary language spelling was inspired by Czech spelling), but differs from it both phonetically and grammatically. However, Slovak did not arise from the Czech language (neither from Old nor from Middle Czech) and the Czech language started to penetrate to Slovakia only in the 14th century. Adult Slovaks are able to understand Czech and to some extent Polish and Sorbian without a translator. As regards to Polish and Sorbian, the degree of understanding is highly dependent on the degree to which the individual has been exposed to these languages. Written Polish may look complicated to a Slovak due to its orthography — words which are pronounced similarly and often have the same meaning may look different in each language.

During the existence of Czechoslovakia (and especially due to common television, frequent contacts and the prestige of Czech), the spoken Slovak language took over many Czech words, idioms and some features of the syntax (e.g. Sokolová, 1995; Musilová and Sokolová, 2004), and in turn lost many typical Slovak expressions. The split of Czechoslovakia (1993) brought about a reshaping of mutual Czech-Slovak contacts. The precise extent of the decrease in intelligibility between Slovak and Czech is difficult to measure due to a lack of reliable data from the period of the common state that would be comparable to the data the linguists and scientist have today. Some Czech children today themselves, however, claim that they do not understand Slovak-language TV or radio programs perfectly (they are sometimes dubbed into Czech, which was not the case in the past) and are unable to read Slovak texts conveniently, this is also confirmed by young Slovak students in the Czech Republic. There is some evidence that Czech children (up to certain age) had not understood Slovak well in the period of Czechoslovakia either, but at they learned it by being exposed to Slovak in contrast to present-time (see Nábělková, 2003, 2007, and Sloboda, 2004, for more details). Concerning learners of either Czech or Slovak as a foreign language, they do not understand the other language "automatically". Slovak seems to keep slightly converging on Czech, especially in phraseology and volabulary, even after the split of Czechoslovakia, due to the frequent use of Czech on major TV channels (even for children) and due to the fact that there are more Czech books on the Slovak market then before 1993.

With respect to different varieties of Slovak, the standard (literary) Slovak, which is based on Central Slovak dialects, is mutually intelligible with Czech and shares much of professional terminology with it due to common language policy in terminology building in the period after the Second World War. In contrast to Western, Central and standard varieties of Slovak, Eastern Slovak dialects are much less intelligible with Czech, since they structurally differ from Czech the most and the Czechs do not usually come into contact with them (Eastern Slovaks in the Czech Republic use predominantly standard Slovak, or Czech, in communication with Czechs).

The Rusyn language is mutually intelligible with eastern Slovak dialects (but both lack professional terminology and higher style expressions). The Polish and Sorbian languages are somewhat intelligible to both Slovak and Czech, but they have different professional terminology and higher style expressions — the more you keep your language style low and simple, the better you are understood.

Slovak is not related to the (non-Slavic, non-Indo-European) Hungarian language. However, it borrowed words from Hungarian in the past as a result of being part of the Kingdom of Hungary from the 11th century to 1918, but only a very low number of them is still used in literary language today. Traces of Hungarian loanwords remain in some dialects; they are usually words with a very specific meaning.

Differences between the Slovak and Czech languages

Linguistically, the Czech and Slovak languages form a language continuum, eastern Slovak dialects then blend into the Rusyn language. Czech exists in two different forms (excluding the Moravian dialects): literary Czech and colloquial Czech. The standard Slovak language is closer to literary Czech, especially in phonology and morphology. The differences between parts of the vocabulary of some Slovak dialects are rather big, comparable to the differences between standard Slovak and Czech.


Dialects

The spoken Slovak language consists of a large number of dialects that can be divided in four basic groups:

- Eastern Slovak dialects (in Spiš, Šariš, Zemplin and Abov);

- Central Slovak dialects (in Liptov, Orava, Turiec, Tekov, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer and the historic Zvolen county);

- Western Slovak dialects (in remaining Slovakia: Kysuce, Trencin, Trnava, Nitra, Zahorie);

- Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak dialects (outside Slovakia in the Pannonian Plain which belonged to the Hungarian part of the former Austro-Hungary, i.e. in today's Serbian Vojvodina, southeastern Hungary, western Romania, and the Croatian part of Syrmia).

The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary and inflection. The differences in syntax are minor. Modified Central Slovak forms the basis of the present-day standard language. Not all dialects are fully mutually intelligible. The differences between some Slovak dialects make it for example often impossible for an inhabitant of the Slovak capital Bratislava (in western Slovakia) to understand a person from eastern Slovakia. Also, at the dialect level, only some dialects of western Slovak can be considered fully mutually intelligible with the Czech language, with which Slovak borders in the west.

The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges (Slovakia is a mountainous country). The first three groups already existed in the 10th century. All of them are also spoken by the Slovaks outside Slovakia (USA, Canada, Croatian Slavonia, Bulgaria and elsewhere) and Central and Western dialects form the basis of the Lowland dialects.

The western dialects contain many features common with the Moravian dialects in the Czech Republic, the southern central dialects contain a few features common with South Slavic languages, and the eastern dialects a few features common with Polish and the East Slavonic languages (cf. Štolc, 1994). Lowland dialects share some words and pronunciation features with the languages surrounding them (Serbian, Hungarian and Romanian).


History of Slovak

6th – 7th century

Phonological differentiation within the uniform Slavic language (Proto-Slavic) begins and it also occurs on the territory of Slovakia. For some results of this differentiation, see 9th century.

9th century

Nitrian principality (till 833) in Slovakia and Great Moravia (833-907) in Slovakia and Moravia. A dialect exists in central Slovakia that has changed the Proto-Slavic groups –ort-, -olt- in rat-, lat- (as in today standard, Slovak language), e. g. in the name of the Great Moravian prince Rastislav (in Czech Rostislav). Furthermore, the Proto-Slavic –dj-, -tj- has changed to –dz-, -c- (this happened well before the 9th century):

- before 863: Latin is probably the administrative and liturgical language on this territory

- 863: The brothers Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius arrive in Great Moravia. The Old Church Slavonic becomes the administrative, literary and liturgical language, and the Glagolitic alphabet the corresponding script, in Great Moravia till 885. Latin continues to be used in parallel. Some of the early Old Church Slavonic texts contain elements of the language of the Slavic inhabitants of Great Moravia and Pannonia (which were called Sloviene by Slavic texts at that time). Also, the Glagolitic alphabet, which was invented by Constantine specifically for his mission to Great Moravia, contains the letter g = 8 corresponding to dz, which only existed in Great Moravia at that time (today still in the Slovak language; later also in Poland and temporarily in Bohemia), i. e. it did not exist in Macedonian dialects.

- 885: The use of the Slavic language (Old Church Slavonic) in Great Moravia is prohibited by the Pope. Latin becomes the administrative and liturgical language again. Many followers and students of Cyril and Methodius flee to Bulgaria, Croatia, later also to Bohemia, Russia and other countries.

early 10th century

The Slovak language arises from the language of the Sloviene (i. e. the Slavic inhabitants of Great Moravia, present-day Hungary, Slovenia and Slavonia) in the form of several Slovak dialects, after the Magyars (Hungarians) have destroyed Great Moravia (c.907), settled in present-day Hungary, separated the West from the South Slavs, and temporarily subjugated southern parts of Slovakia (most of the remaining Slovakia will become part of Hungary till the end of the 11th century). In the 10th century, the Slovak dialects are already divided in the three present-day groups (West, Central and Eastern Slovak dialects). The rise of the Slovak language, just as that of other Slavic languages, can be shifted back to the 6th and 7th century, but the general consensus of Slavic linguists is that it was only in the 10th century that the Slavic languages were different enough to define them as separate languages.

10th – early 19th century

Latin is used as the administrative, liturgical and literary language in Hungary (incl. Slovakia). The common people speak Slovak dialects.

13th – 14th century

Slovak burghers and yeomen start to use the Slovak dialects as administrative languages (together with Latin).The Slovak language consolidates after centuries of quick development.

14th century

The written Czech language starts to penetrate to Slovakia through Czech clergy teaching in capitular schools.

15th century – 16th century

Slovak continues to be used for administrative purposes. The written Czech language is also used (together with Latin) by certain Slovaks for certain purposes (correspondence, certain contracts, religious texts addressed to common people etc.), but it mostly contains many Slovak elements, and texts written by people with no higher education are always written in Slovak. The reasons for the use of the Czech language are: the absence of a uniform Slovak language standard due to an absence of a Slovak state (whereas the Czech was a more or less standardized language), the fact that it is easier to learn than Latin for Slovaks, studies of many Slovaks at the University of Prague, the influence of the campaigns of the Czech Hussites and of John Giskra (Ján Jiskra) in Slovakia, and the temporary conquest of Moravia by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. In the 16th century, a Cultured Western Slovak, Cultured Central Slovak and a Cultured Eastern Slovak language start to arise (their use will intesify in the 18th century).

17th century – 18th century

The Lutheran Protestants use the Czech language (since late 16th century; as a liturgical language even till the early 20th century) in the religious sphere, the Catholics the western Slovak language (Cultured Western Slovak, Jesuit Slovak) based on the language used by the educated people from the region of Trnava where the important Jesuit University of Trnava was founded in 1635, and in the profane sphere (especially in the towns) the Slovak language more or less influenced by the Czech is used even in written documents, often with a chaotic orthography. But even the above-mentioned Protestants have replaced many Czech sounds by Slovak ones (e. g. ř by r, ě by e, au by ú, ou by ú etc. ). In eastern Slovakia, a Slovakized standard Polish language is used sometimes (besides Czech, Slovak and Latin) for the same purposes and reasons as the Czech language is used in the remaining Slovakia. Of course, the Latin language continues to be used, especially in state administration. As for politics, many Czech Protestant emigrants came to Slovakia in the late 16th century and especially after the Battle at the White Mountain (1620). After a successful recatholization, however, Slovakia became a largely Catholic country again in the 18th century.

1680’s – 18th century

After the defeat of the Turks near Vienna, many Slovaks gradually emigrate to the “Lower Lands“, i.e. to the territories in present-day Hungary, Serbia (later to Croatia and Bulgaria), and Romania depopulated after the Turkish occupation. They have preserved their particular Slovak dialects till today.


Standardization:

17th century - 1750

Major efforts to establish Slovak as the standard language emerge. For example, in his The Czech Grammar (1603, Prague), Vavrinec Benedikt from Nedožery incites the Slovaks to deepen their knowledge of their Slovak language. Also, Matej Bel in the introduction to the Gramatica Slavico-Bohemica (1745, Bratislava) of Pavol Doležal compares the Slovak language with other outstanding cultured languages. Literary activity in the Slovak language flourishes during the second half of the seventeenth century and continues into the next century.

1763

Romuald Hadvabný of Červený Kláštor proposes a detailed (West Slovak) language codification in his Latin-Slovak Dictionary with an outline of the Slovak grammar.

1783

The first adventure novel in Slovak - the René Mládenca Príhody a Skúsenosti - is published by Jozef Ignác Bajza in the western Slovak language.

1787

Anton Bernolák, a Catholic priest (died 1813), publishes his Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum (Bratislava), in which he codifies a Slovak language standard based on the West Slovak language of the University of Trnava, but containing also some central Slovak elements (e. g the ľ and many words). The language is often called the Bernolák language. Bernolák will continue his codification work in other books in the 1780’s and 1790’s and especially in his huge six-volume Slovak-Czech-Latin-German-Hungarian Dictionary (published only 1825 –1927). This is the first successful establishment of a Slovak language standard. Bernolák’s language will be used by Slovak Catholics (esp. by the writers Juraj Fándly and Ján Hollý), but the Protestants will still write in the Czech language (in its old form used in Bohemia till the 17th century).

1843

Young Slovak Lutheran Protestants, led by Ľudovít Štúr, decide to establish and discuss the central Slovak dialect as the new Slovak language standard (instead of both Bernolák’s language used by the Catholics and the Czech language used by older Slovak Lutheran Protestants). The new language is also accepted by some users of the Bernolák language led by Ján Hollý (see also 1851), but is initially criticized by the older Lutheran Protestants led by Ján Kollár (died 1852). This language has been used till today as the standard Slovak language (see 1851). It will be officially declared the new language standard in August 1844. The first Slovak grammar of the new language will be published by Ľudovít Štúr in 1846. For details see Ľudovít Štúr.

1844

The Hungarian Diet of Bratislava replaces the Latin language (used since the Middle Ages) with the Hungarian language as the official language of Hungary (including Slovakia).

1851

Advocates of the Štúr language (1843) and of the Bernolák language (1787) agree on a common language standard, which is basically identical with the Štúr language, except that the orthography is changed from a phonologic one to an etymological one (e. g. introduction of y instead of i in some words, writing de, te etc. without a caron etc.) and some concessions are made to Bernolák’s followers (e. g. past participle ending –l instead of –ou; introduction of ľ). Most of these changes were proposed by the Slovak linguist Martin Hattala in 1850 and then officially established by him in 1852 in the scientific Slovak grammar “Krátka mluvnice slovenská”. This language version is used till today, except for minor language reforms in 1902, 1931, 1940, 1953 and 1991.


Modern History

1870’s

After the establishment of Austria-Hungary (1867), the Hungarian government prohibits the only three Slovak high schools in Hungary (founded in the 1860’s) in 1874-1875, and a strong Magyarisation begins in Hungary.

1907

With the Apponyi Laws, the Hungarian government officially turns all Slovak (and German) basic schools into Hungarian ones and the Slovak (and German) language is allowed to be taught one hour in the week as a foreign language.

1918 – 1992 (except WWII)

With the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the Slovak language is saved from a probable extinction (see 1907) and becomes an official language for the first time in history (along with the Czech language). At the same time, the language (especially the vocabulary) is strongly influenced by the Czech language. This holds mainly for the initial years of Czechoslovakia, when many Czech teachers and clerks were active in Slovakia (since Slovaks educated in the Slovak language were missing) and when missing Slovak professional terminology had to be created, as well as for the period after WWII, when most TV programs were broadcast in the Czech language.

1959 – 1968

The six-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (SSJ) is published.

1993

Czechoslovakia splits into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The Slovak language becomes the official language of Slovakia. Further developments with respect to the Czech language remain to be seen, because close cultural and educational contacts did not disappear after 1992 and, for economic reasons, there are even more books written in the Czech language in the Slovak market than before 1990.