The Czech–Slovak group developed within West Slavic in thehigh medieval period, and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech–Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period. In the later mid-19th century, the modernSlovak alphabet and written standard became codified byĽudovít Štúr and reformed byMartin Hattala. TheMoravian dialects spoken in the western part of the country along the border with theCzech Republic are also sometimes classified as Slovak, although some of their western variants are closer to Czech; they nonetheless form the bridge dialects between the two languages.
Slovak language is primarily spoken in Slovakia. The country's constitution declared it the official language of the state (štátny jazyk):
(1) Na území Slovenskej republiky je štátnym jazykom slovenský jazyk.(2) Používanie iných jazykov než štátneho jazyka v úradnom styku ustanoví zákon.
(1) The Slovak language is the official language on the territory of the Slovak Republic.(2) The use of languages other than the official language in official communication shall be laid down by law.
Beside that, national minorities and ethnic groups also have explicit permission to use their distinct languages.[24][25][26] Slovakia is a country with establishedLanguage policy concerning itsofficial language.[25][27]
Standard Slovak (spisovná slovenčina) is defined by an Act of Parliament on the State Language of the Slovak Republic (language law). According to this law, the Ministry of Culture approves and publishes the codified form of Slovak based on the judgment of specialised Slovak linguistic institutes and specialists in the area of the state language. This is traditionally theĽudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics, which is part of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In practice, the Ministry of Culture publishes a document that specifies authoritative reference books for standard Slovak usage, which is called the codification handbook (kodifikačná príručka). The current regulations were published on 15 March 2021. There are four such publications:[28]
'Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu', 2013; (orthographic rules)
'Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka', 2020; (dictionary)
'Pravidlá slovenskej výslovnosti', 2009; (pronunciation)
'Morfológia slovenského jazyka', 1966; (morphology)
The fourth group of dialects is often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western Slovak dialects (see e.g. Štolc, 1968), but it is currently undergoing changes due to contact with surrounding languages (Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, and Hungarian) and long-time geographical separation from Slovakia (see the studies inZborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov, e.g. Dudok, 1993).
The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary, and tonal inflection. Syntactic differences are minor. Central Slovak forms the basis of the present-day standard language. Not all dialects are fully mutually intelligible. It may be difficult for an inhabitant of the western Slovakia to understand a dialect from eastern Slovakia and the other way around.
The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges. The first three groups already existed in the 10th century. All of them are spoken by the Slovaks outside Slovakia, and central and western dialects form the basis of the lowland dialects (see above).
The western dialects contain 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 andareal features with the languages surrounding them (Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, and Romanian).
The phoneme /æ/ is marginal and often merges with /e/; the two are normally only distinguished in higher registers.[35]
Vowel length is phonemic in Slovak and both short and long vowels have the same quality.[36] In addition, Slovak, unlike Czech, employs a"rhythmic law" which forbids two long vowels from following one another within the same word. In such cases the second vowel is shortened. For example, adding the locative plural ending-ách to the rootvín- createsvínach, not*vínách.[37] This law also applies to diphthongs; for example, the adjective meaning "white" isbiely, not*bielý (compare Czechbílý).
Slovak hasfinal devoicing; when a voiced consonant (b, d, ď, g, dz, dž, z, ž, h) is at the end of a word before a pause, it is devoiced to its voiceless counterpart (p, t, ť, k, c, č, s, š, ch, respectively). For example,pohyb is pronounced/pɔɦip/ andprípad is pronounced/priːpat/.
Consonant clusters containing both voiced and voiceless elements are entirely voiced if the last consonant is a voiced one, or voiceless if the last consonant is voiceless. For example,otázka is pronounced/ɔtaːska/ andvzchopiť sa is pronounced/fsxɔpitsːa/. This rule applies also over the word boundary. For example,prísť domov[priːzɟdɔmɔw] (to come home) andviac jahôd[ʋɪɐdzjaɦʊɔt] (more strawberries). The voiced counterpart of "ch"/x/ is[ɣ], and the unvoiced counterpart of "h"/ɦ/ is/x/.
Slovak uses theLatin script with small modifications that include the fourdiacritics (ˇ, ´, ¨, ˆ) placed above certain letters (a-á,ä; c-č; d-ď; dz-dž; e-é; i-í; l-ľ,ĺ; n-ň; o-ó,ô; r-ŕ; s-š; t-ť; u-ú; y-ý; z-ž)
A a[a]
Á á[aː]
Ä ä[ɛɐ̯~ɛ]
B b[b]
C c[ts]
Č č[tʂ]
D d[d]
Ď ď[ɟ]
Dz dz[dz]
Dž dž[dʐ]
E e[ɛ]
É é[ɛː]
F f[f]
G g[ɡ]
H h[ɦ]
Ch ch[x]
I i[i]
Í í[iː]
J j[j]
K k[k]
L l[l]
Ľ ľ[ʎ]
Ĺ ĺ[lː]
M m[m]
N n[n]
Ň ň[ɲ]
O o[ɔ]
Ó ó[ɔː]
Ô ô[ʊɔ̯]
P p[p]
Q q[kʋ]
R r[r]
Ŕ ŕ[r̩ː]
S s[s]
Š š[ʂ]
T t[t]
Ť ť[c]
U u[u]
Ú ú[uː]
V v[v~ʋ]
W w[v~ʋ]
X x[ks]
Y y[i]
Ý ý[iː]
Z z[z]
Ž ž[ʐ]
Italic letters (Q and W) are used in loanwords and foreign names.
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is thephonemic principle. The secondary principle is the morphological principle: forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently. An example of this principle is the assimilation rule (see below). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use ofi after certain consonants and ofy after other consonants, although bothi andy are usually pronounced the same way.
Finally, the rarely applied grammatical principle occurs when, for example, the basic singular form and plural form of masculine adjectives are written differently with no difference in pronunciation (e.g.pekný = nice – singular versuspekní = nice – plural). Such spellings are most often remnants of differences in pronunciation that were present in Proto-Slavic (in Polish, where the vowel merger did not occur,piękny andpiękni and in Czechpěkný andpěkní are pronounced differently).
Mostloanwords from foreign languages are respelt using Slovak principles either immediately or later. For example, "weekend" is spelledvíkend, "software" –softvér, "gay" –gej (both not exclusively)[clarification needed], and "quality" is spelledkvalita. Personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep their original spelling unless a Slovakexonym exists (e.g.Londýn for "London").
Slovak features someheterophonic homographs (words with identical spelling but different pronunciation and meaning), the most common examples beingkrásne/ˈkraːsnɛ/ (beautiful) versuskrásne/ˈkraːsɲɛ/ (beautifully).
(Speváčk-y spieva-j-ú;-ú is a third-person-plural ending, and /j/ is ahiatus sound)
My speváčky spievame. (We the+singer+feminine suffixčka+plural suffixy are+singing.)
(My speváčk-y spieva-me, where-me is the first-person-plural ending)
and so forth.
Adjectives, pronouns and numerals agree inperson,gender andcase with the noun to which they refer.
Adjectives precede their noun. Botanic or zoological terms are exceptions (e.g.mačka divá, literally "cat wild",Felis silvestris) as is the naming of Holy Spirit (Duch Svätý) in a majority of churches.
Word order in Slovak is relatively free, since stronginflection enables the identification ofgrammatical roles (subject, object, predicate, etc.) regardless of word placement. This relatively free word order allows the use of word order to conveytopic and emphasis.
Some examples are as follows:
Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára obchod. = That big man is opening a store there today. (ten = that;veľký = big;muž = man;tam = there;dnes = today;otvára = opens;obchod = store) – The word order does not emphasize any specific detail, just general information.
Ten veľký muž dnes otvára obchod tam. = That big man is today opening a store there. – This word order emphasizes the place (tam = there).
Dnes tam otvára obchod ten veľký muž. = Today over there a store is being opened by that big man. – This word order focuses on the person who is opening the store (ten = that;veľký = big;muž = man).
Obchod tam dnes otvára ten veľký muž. = The store over there is today being opened by that big man. – Depending on the intonation the focus can be either on the store itself or on the person.
Theunmarked order issubject–verb–object. Variation in word order is generally possible, but word order is not completely free.In the above example, the noun phraseten veľký muž cannot be split up, so that the following combinations are not possible:
Ten otvára veľký muž tam dnes obchod.
Obchod muž tam ten veľký dnes otvára. ...
And the following sentence is stylistically infelicitous:
Obchod ten veľký muž dnes tam otvára. (Only possible in a poem or other forms of artistic style.)
Slovak, like every major Slavic language other thanBulgarian andMacedonian, does not have articles. The demonstrative pronoun in masculine formten (that one) ortá in feminine andto in neuter respectively, may be used in front of the noun in situations wheredefiniteness must be made explicit.
Slovak nouns are inflected forcase andnumber. There are six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and instrumental. Thevocative is purely optional and most of the time unmarked. It is used mainly in spoken language and in some fixed expressions:mama mum (nominative) vs.mami mum! (vocative),tato,oco dad (N) vs.tati,oci dad! (V),pán Mr., sir vs.pane sir (when addressing someone e.g. in the street). There are two numbers: singular and plural. Nouns have inherentgender. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives and pronouns must agree with nouns in case, number, and gender.
The numerals 0–10 have unique forms, with numerals 1–4 requiring specific gendered representations. Numerals 11–19 are formed by addingnásť to the end of each numeral. The suffixdsať is used to create numerals 20, 30 and 40; for numerals 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90,desiat is used. Compound numerals (21, 1054) are combinations of these words formed in the same order as their mathematical symbol is written (e.g. 21 =dvadsaťjeden, literally "twenty-one").
The numerals are as follows:
1–10
11–20
10–100
1
jeden (number, masculine),jedno (neuter),jedna) (feminine)
11
jedenásť
10
desať
2
dva (number, masculine inanimate),dve (neuter, feminine),dvaja (masculine animate)
12
dvanásť
20
dvadsať
3
tri (number, neuter, masculine inanimate, feminine),traja (masculine animate)
13
trinásť
30
tridsať
4
štyri (number, neuter, masculine inanimate, feminine),štyria (masculine animate)
Counted nouns have two forms. The most common form is the plural genitive (e.g.päť domov = five houses orstodva žien = one hundred two women), while the plural form of the noun when counting the amounts of 2–4, etc., is usually the nominative form without counting (e.g.dva domy = two houses ordve ženy = two women) but gender rules do apply in many cases.
Verbs have three major conjugations. Three persons and two numbers (singular and plural) are distinguished.Subjectpersonal pronouns are omitted unless they are emphatic.
Some imperfective verbs are created from the stems of perfective verbs to denote repeated or habitual actions. These are considered separatelexemes. One example is as follows: to hide (perfective) =skryť, to hide (habitual) =skrývať.
Historically, twopast tense forms were utilized. Both are formed analytically. The second of these, equivalent to thepluperfect, is not widely used in the modern language, being rather considered archaic. Examples for two related verbs are as follows:
skryť: skryl som (I hid / I have hidden);bol som skryl (I had hidden)
skrývať: skrýval som; bol som skrýval.
Onefuture tense exists. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically; for perfective verbs, it is identical to the present tense. Some examples are as follows:
skryť: skryjem
skrývať: budem skrývať
Twoconditional forms exist. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:
skryť: skryl by som (I would hide),bol by som skryl (I would have hidden)
skrývať: skrýval by som; bol by som skrýval
Thepassive voice is formed either as in English (copula + passive participle) or using the reflexive pronoun 'sa':
skryť: je skrytý; skryje sa
skrývať: je skrývaný; skrýva sa
Thepassive participle (= ~ed (one), the "third form") is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:
skryť: skrytý
skrývať: skrývaný
The activepresent participle (= ~ing (one)) is formed using the suffixes -úci / -iaci / -aci
Adverbs are formed by replacing the adjectival ending with the ending -o or -e / -y. Sometimes both -o and -e are possible. Examples include the following:
vysoký (high) –vysoko (highly)
pekný (nice) –pekne (nicely)
priateľský (friendly) –priateľsky (in a friendly manner)
rýchly (fast) –rýchlo (quickly)
The comparative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjectival ending with a comparative/superlative ending -(ej)ší or -(ej)šie, whence the superlative is formed with the prefixnaj-. Examples include the following:
Each preposition is associated with one or more grammatical cases. The noun governed by a preposition must agree with the preposition in the given context. The prepositionod always calls for the genitive case, but some prepositions such aspo can call for different cases depending on the intended sense of the preposition.
from friends =od priateľov (genitive case ofpriatelia)
around the square =po námestí (locative case ofnámestie)
up to the square =po námestie (accusative case ofnámestie)
Slovak is a descendant ofProto-Slavic, itself a descendant ofProto-Indo-European. It is closely related to the otherWest Slavic languages, primarily toCzech andPolish. Czech also influenced the language in its later development. The highest number of borrowings in the old Slovak vocabulary come fromLatin,German, Czech,Hungarian, Polish andGreek (in that order).[41] Recently, it is also influenced by English.
Since thedissolution of Czechoslovakia it has been permitted to use Czech in TV broadcasting and during court proceedings (Administration Procedure Act 99/1963 Zb.). From 1999 to August 2009, the Minority Language Act 184/1999 Z.z., in its section (§) 6, contained the variously interpreted unclear provision saying that "When applying this act, it holds that the use of the Czech language fulfills the requirement of fundamental intelligibility with the state language"; the state language is Slovak and the Minority Language Act basically refers to municipalities with more than 20% ethnic minority population (no such Czech municipalities are found in Slovakia). Since 1 September 2009 (due to an amendment to the State Language Act 270/1995 Z.z.) a language "fundamentally intelligible with the state language" (i.e. the Czech language) may be used in contact with state offices and bodies by its native speakers, and documents written in it and issued by bodies in the Czech Republic are officially accepted. Regardless of its official status, Czech is used commonly both in Slovak mass media and in daily communication by Czech natives as an equal language.
Czech and Slovak have a long history of interaction and mutual influence well before the creation ofCzechoslovakia in 1918, a state which existed until 1993.Literary Slovak shares significantorthographic features with Czech, as well as technical and professional terminology dating from the Czechoslovak period, but phonetic, grammatical, and vocabularydifferences do exist.
Slavic language varieties are relatively closely related, and have had a large degree of mutual influence, due to the complicated ethnopolitical history of their historic ranges. This is reflected in the many features Slovak shares with neighboring language varieties. Standard Slovak shares high degrees of mutual intelligibility with many Slavic varieties. Despite this closeness to other Slavic varieties, significant variation exists among Slovak dialects. In particular, eastern varieties differ significantly from the standard language, which is based on central and western varieties.
Eastern Slovak dialects have the greatest degree of mutual intelligibility withPolish of all the Slovak dialects, followed byRusyn, but both Eastern Slovak and Rusyn lack familiar technical terminology and upperregister expressions. Polish andSorbian also differ quite considerably from Czech and Slovak in upper registers, but non-technical and lower register speech is readily intelligible. Some mutual intelligibility occurs with spokenRusyn,Ukrainian, and evenRussian (in this order), as their orthographies are based on theCyrillic script.
študovať:studieren (to study (as in, to major in))
vinšovať:wünschen (to wish)
Note: colloquially, the standard term in Slovak isželať[42]
Greetings:
Servus is commonly used as a greeting or upon parting in Slovak-speaking regions and some German-speaking regions, particularly Austria.Papa is also commonly used upon parting in these regions. Bothservus andpapa are used in colloquial, informal conversation.
Hungarians and Slovaks have had language interaction ever since the settlement of Hungarians in theCarpathian area. Hungarians also adopted many words from various Slavic languages related to agriculture and administration, and a number ofHungarian loanwords are found in Slovak. Some examples are as follows:
"wicker whip": Slovakkorbáč (the standard name for "whip" isbič andkorbáč, itself originating fromTurkishkırbaç, usually means only one particular type of it—the "wicker whip") – Hungariankorbács;
"dragon/kite": Slovakšarkan (rather rare,drak is far more common in this meaning;šarkan often means only "kite", especially a small one that is flown for fun and this term is far more common thandrak in this meaning; for the "dragon kite", the termdrak is still used almost exclusively)[clarification needed] – Hungariansárkány.[43]
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Slovak (latin script):
Všetci ľudia sa rodia slobodní a rovní v dôstojnosti aj právach. Sú obdarení rozumom a svedomím a majú sa k sebe správať v duchu bratstva.[44]
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[45]
^Habijanec, Siniša (2020). "Pannonian Rusyn". In Greenberg, Marc; Grenoble, Lenore (eds.).Brill Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics.Brill Publishers.doi:10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_031961.ISSN2589-6229. Retrieved1 April 2024.The third theory defines Pannonian Rusyn as a West Slavic language originating in the East Slovak Zemplín and Šariš dialects and being a mixture of the two. It fits the linguistic data in the most consistent manner and has been accepted by an overwhelming majority of scholars in the field (Bidwell 1966; Švagrovský 1984; Witkowski 1984; Lunt 1998; Čarskij 2011) and verified by several comprehensive analyses of Pannonian Rusyn language data (Bidwell 1966; Lunt 1998; Čarskij 2011).
^Pisarek, Walery (2009).The relationship between official and minority languages in Poland(PDF). 7th Annual Conference: The Relationship between Official Languages and Regional and Minority Languages in Europe. Dublin, Ireland: European Federation of National Institutions for Language. p. 18. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 14 December 2019. Retrieved28 November 2019.
^"Hungary needs to strengthen use of and access to minority languages". Strasbourg, France:Council of Europe. 14 December 2016. Retrieved29 June 2020.The following languages have been given special protection under the European Charter [in Hungary]: Armenian, Beas, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romani, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Ukrainian.
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