Slovak language


Slovak or alternatively Slovakian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak group. Spoken by approximately 5 million people as a native language, it serves as the official language of Slovakia and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.
Slovak is closely related to Czech, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree, as well as Polish. Like other Slavic languages, Slovak is a fusional language with a complex system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German and other Slavic languages.
The Czech-Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the high 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 modern Slovak alphabet and written standard became codified by Ľudovít Štúr and reformed by Martin Hattala. The Moravian dialects spoken in the western part of the country along the border with the Czech 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 speakers are also found in the Slovak diaspora in the United States, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Serbia, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Ukraine, Norway and in other countries to a lesser extent.

Phonology

Orthography

Slovak uses the Latin script with small modifications that include the four diacritics placed above certain letters
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic 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. 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 usually pronounced the same way.
Finally, the rarely applied grammatical principle is present when, for example, the basic singular form and plural form of masculine adjectives are written differently with no difference in pronunciation.
In addition, the following rules are present:
Most loanwords from foreign languages are respelt using Slovak principles either immediately or later. For example, "weekend" is spelled víkend, "software" – softvér, "gay" – gej, and "quality" is spelled kvalita. Personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep their original spelling unless a fully Slovak form of the name exists.
Slovak features some heterophonic homographs, the most common examples being krásne versus krásne .

Syntax

The main features of Slovak syntax are as follows:
Some examples include the following:
Word order in Slovak is relatively free, since strong inflection enables the identification of grammatical roles regardless of word placement. This relatively free word order allows the use of word order to convey topic and emphasis.
Some examples are as follows:
The unmarked order is subject–verb–object. Variation in word order is generally possible, but word order is not completely free.
In the above example, the noun phrase ten veľký muž cannot be split up, so that the following combinations are not possible:
And the following sentence is stylistically infelicitous:
The regular variants are as follows:

Morphology

Articles

Slovak does not have articles. The demonstrative pronoun ten may be used in front of the noun in situations where definiteness must be made explicit.

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns

Slovak nouns are inflected for case and number. There are six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and instrumental. The vocative is no longer morphologically marked. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Nouns have inherent gender. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives and pronouns must agree with nouns in case, number, and gender.

Numerals

The numerals 0–10 have unique forms, with numerals 1–4 requiring specific gendered representations. Numerals 11–19 are formed by adding násť to the end of each numeral. The suffix dsať is used to create numerals 20, 30 and 40; for numerals 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90, desiat is used. Compound numerals are combinations of these words formed in the same order as their mathematical symbol is written.
The numerals are as follows:
1-1011-2010-100
1jeden, jedno, jedna 11jedenásť10desať
2dva, dve, dvaja 12dvanásť20dvadsať
3tri, traja 13trinásť30tridsať
4štyri, štyria 14štrnásť40štyridsať
5päť15pätnásť50päťdesiat
6šesť16šestnásť60šesťdesiat
7sedem17sedemnásť70sedemdesiat
8osem18osemnásť80osemdesiat
9deväť19devätnásť90deväťdesiat
10desať20dvadsať100sto

Some higher numbers: dvesto, tristo, deväťsto, tisíc, tisícsto, dvetisíc, stotisíc, dvestotisíc, milión, miliarda.
Counted nouns have two forms. The most common form is the plural genitive, while the plural form of the noun when counting the amounts of 2–4, etc., is usually the nominative form without counting but gender rules do apply in many cases.

Verbs

Verbs have three major conjugations. Three persons and two numbers are distinguished. Several conjugation paradigms exist as follows:
volať, to callSingularPluralPast participle
1st personvolámvolámevolal – volala – volalo
2nd personvolášvoláte-
3rd personvolávolajú-

bývať, to liveSingularPluralPast participle
1st personbývambývamebýval – bývala – bývalo
2nd personbývašbývate-
3rd personbývabývajú-

vracať, to return or to vomitSingularPluralPast participle
1st personvraciamvraciamevracal – vracala – vracalo
2nd personvraciašvraciate-
3rd personvraciavracajú-

robiť, to do, workSingularPluralPast participle
1st personrobímrobímerobil – robila – robilo
2nd personrobíšrobíte-
3rd personrobírobia-

vrátiť, to returnSingularPluralPast participle
1st personvrátimvrátimevrátil – vrátila – vrátilo
2nd personvrátišvrátite-
3rd personvrátivrátia-

vidieť, to seeSingularPluralPast participle
1st personvidímvidímevidel – videla – videlo
2nd personvidíšvidíte-
3rd personvidívidia-

kupovať, to buySingularPluralPast participle
1st personkupujemkupujemekupoval – kupovala – kupovalo
2nd personkupuješkupujete-
3rd personkupujekupujú-

zabudnúť, to forgetSingularPluralPast participle
1st personzabudnemzabudnemezabudol – zabudla – zabudlo
2nd personzabudnešzabudnete-
3rd personzabudnezabudnú-

minúť, to spend, missSingularPluralPast participle
1st personminiemminiememinul – minula – minulo
2nd personminiešminiete-
3rd personminieminú-

niesť, to carrySingularPluralPast participle
1st personnesiemnesiemeniesol – niesla – nieslo
2nd personnesiešnesiete-
3rd personnesienesú-

stučnieť, to carry SingularPluralPast participle
1st personstučniemstučniemestučnel – stučnela – stučnelo
2nd personstučniešstučniete-
3rd personstučniestučnejú-

byť, to bejesť, to eatvedieť, to know
1st singularsomjemviem
2nd singularsiješvieš
3rd singularjejevie
1st pluralsmejemevieme
2nd pluralstejeteviete
3rd pluralsújediavedia
Past participlebol, bola, bolojedol, jedla, jedlovedel, vedela, vedelo

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:
The comparative/superlative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjectival ending with a comparative/superlative ending -ší or -šie. Examples include the following:

Prepositions

Each preposition is associated with one or more grammatical cases. The noun governed by a preposition must appear in the case required by the preposition in the given context. Priateľov is the genitive case of priatelia. It must appear in this case because the preposition od always calls for its objects to be in the genitive.
Po has a different meaning depending on the case of its governed noun.

History

Relationships to other languages

The Slovak language is a descendant of Proto-Slavic, itself a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is closely related to the other West Slavic languages, primarily to Czech and Polish. Czech also influenced the language in its later development. The highest number of borrowings in the old Slovak vocabulary come from Latin, German, Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Greek. Recently, it is also influenced by English.

Czech

Although most dialects of Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible, eastern Slovak dialects are less intelligible to speakers of Czech and closer to Polish, Ruthenian and Ukrainian and contact between speakers of Czech and speakers of the eastern dialects is limited.
Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia it has been permitted to use Czech in TV broadcasting and during court proceedings. 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. Since 1 September 2009 a language "fundamentally intelligible with the state 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 of Czechoslovakia in 1918, a state which existed until 1993. Literary Slovak shares significant orthographic features with Czech, as well as technical and professional terminology dating from the Czechoslovak period, but phonetic, grammatical, and vocabulary differences do exist.

Other Slavic languages

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 with Polish of all the Slovak dialects, followed by Rusyn, but both Eastern Slovak and Rusyn lack familiar technical terminology and upper register expressions. Polish and Sorbian 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 spoken Rusyn, Ukrainian, and even Russian, although their orthographies are based on the Cyrillic script.
EnglishSlovakCzechPolishRusynUkrainianBelarusianSerbo-CroatianBulgarianSlovenian
to buykupovaťkupovatkupowaćкуповати купувати купляць kupovatiкупува kupovati
WelcomeVitajteVítejteWitajcieВітайте Вітаю Вітаю Dobro došliдобре дошли Dobrodošli
morningránoráno/jitrorano/ranekрано рано/ранок рана/ранак jutroутро jutro
Thank youĎakujemDěkujiDziękujęДякую Дякую Дзякуй Hvalaблагодаря Hvala
How are you?Ako sa máš?Jak se máš?Jak się masz?
Як ся маєш/маш?
Як справи? Як справы? Kako si?Как си? Kako se imaš?/Kako si?
How are you?Ako sa máš?Jak se máš?Jak się masz?
Як ся маєш/маш?
Як ся маєш?
Як маесься?
Kako si?Как си? Kako se imaš?/Kako si?

Latin

Sports:
Food:
Clothing:
Exclamations:
Nouns:
Verbs:
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. Both servus and papa are used in colloquial, informal conversation.

Hungarian

Hungarians and Slovaks have had a language interaction ever since the settlement of Hungarians in the Carpathian area. Hungarians also adopted many words from various Slavic languages related to agriculture and administration, and a number of Hungarian loanwords are found in Slovak. Some examples are as follows:
There are many Slovak dialects, which are divided into the following four basic groups:
The fourth group of dialects is often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western Slovak dialects, but it is currently undergoing changes due to contact with surrounding languages and long-time geographical separation from Slovakia.
For an external map of the three groups in Slovakia see .
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.
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. Lowland dialects share some words and areal features with the languages surrounding them.

Regulation

Standard Slovak is defined by an Act of Parliament on the State Language of the Slovak Republic. According to this law, Ministry of Culture approves and publishes the codified form of the Slovak language based on the judgment of specialised Slovakistic linguistic institutes and specialists in the area of the state language. This is traditionally Ľudovit Štúr Institute of Linguistics, which is part of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In practice, Ministry of Culture publishes a document that specifies authoritative reference books for standard Slovak usage. There are four such publications: