Slovak language

Slovak, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken by approximately five million people as a native language, primarily ethnic Slovaks, 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 very high mutual intelligibility, as well as to 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, as well as other Slavic languages.

History

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.

Geographic distribution and status

Slovak language is primarily spoken in Slovakia. The country's constitution declared it the official language of the state :
Constitution of Slovakia, Article 6.
Beside that, national minorities and ethnic groups also have explicit permission to use their distinct languages. Slovakia is a country with established Language policy concerning its official language.

Regulation

Standard Slovak is defined by an Act of Parliament on the State Language of the Slovak Republic. 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 the Ľudovít 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. The current regulations were published on 15 March 2021. There are four such publications:

'Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu', 2013;
'Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka', 2020;
'Pravidlá slovenskej výslovnosti', 2009;
'Morfológia slovenského jazyka', 1966;

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 other countries to a lesser extent.
Slovak language is one of the official languages of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.

Slovak language high schools abroad

Budapest, 'Szlovák Tanítási Nyelvű Óvoda, Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és Kollégium'
Békéscsaba, 'Szlovák Gimnázium, Általános Iskola, Óvoda és Kollégium'
Bački Petrovac, 'Ján Kollár Gymnasium and Students' Home'
Kovačica, 'Gimnazija Mihailo Pupin'
Nădlac, 'Liceul Teoretic Jozef Gregor Tajovský'

Dialects

There are many Slovak dialects, which are divided into the following four basic groups:

Western Slovak dialects
Central Slovak dialects
Eastern Slovak dialects
Lowland Slovak dialects

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.
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.

Phonology

Slovak contains 15 vowel phonemes and 29 consonants.
The phoneme /æ/ is marginal and often merges with /e/; the two are normally only distinguished in higher registers.
Vowel length is phonemic in Slovak and both short and long vowels have the same quality. 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 root vín- creates vínach, not *vínách. This law also applies to diphthongs; for example, the adjective meaning "white" is biely, not *bielý.
Slovak has final devoicing; when a voiced consonant is at the end of a word before a pause, it is devoiced to its voiceless counterpart. For example, pohyb is pronounced and prípad is pronounced.
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 and vzchopiť sa is pronounced. This rule applies also over the word boundary. For example, prísť domov and viac jahôd . The voiced counterpart of "ch" is, and the unvoiced counterpart of "h" is.

Orthography

Slovak uses the Latin script with small modifications that include the four diacritics placed above certain letters
Italic letters are used in loanwords and foreign names.
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 occurs when, for example, the basic singular form and plural form of masculine adjectives are written differently with no difference in pronunciation. Such spellings are most often remnants of differences in pronunciation that were present in Proto-Slavic.
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 Slovak exonym exists.
Slovak features some heterophonic homographs, the most common examples being krásne versus krásne .

Grammar

Syntax

The main features of Slovak syntax are as follows:

The verb agrees in person and number with its subject.

Some examples include the following:

Adjectives, pronouns and numerals agree in person, gender and case with the noun to which they refer.
Adjectives precede their noun. Botanic or zoological terms are exceptions as is the naming of Holy Spirit in a majority of churches.

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, like every major Slavic language other than Bulgarian and Macedonian, does not have articles. The demonstrative pronoun in masculine form ten or tá in feminine and to in neuter respectively, 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 purely optional and most of the time unmarked. It is used mainly in spoken language and in some fixed expressions: mama mum vs. mami mum!, tato, oco dad vs. tati, oci dad!, pán Mr., sir vs. pane sir. 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:

1–10		11–20		10–100
1	jeden, jedno	11	jedenásť	10	desať
2	dva, dve, dvaja	12	dvanásť	20	dvadsať
3	tri, traja	13	trinásť	30	tridsať
4	štyri, štyria	14	štrnásť	40	štyridsať
5	päť	15	pätnásť	50	päťdesiat
6	šesť	16	šestnásť	60	šesťdesiat
7	sedem	17	sedemnásť	70	sedemdesiat
8	osem	18	osemnásť	80	osemdesiat
9	deväť	19	devätnásť	90	deväťdesiat
10	desať	20	dvadsať	100	sto

Some higher numbers: dvesto, tristo, štyristo, 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. Subject personal 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 separate lexemes. One example is as follows: to hide = skryť, to hide = skrývať.
Historically, two past tense forms were utilized. Both are formed analytically. The second of these, equivalent to the pluperfect, is not widely used in the modern language, being rather considered archaic. Examples for two related verbs are as follows:
One future tense exists. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically; for perfective verbs, it is identical to the present tense. Some examples are as follows:
Two conditional forms exist. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:
The passive voice is formed either as in English or using the reflexive pronoun 'sa':
The passive participle is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:
The active present participle is formed using the suffixes -úci / -iaci / -aci
The transgressive is formed using the suffixes -úc / -uc / -iac/-ac.
The active past participle was formerly formed using the suffix -vší, but is no longer used.
The gerund is formed using the suffix -ie:

Conjugations

Several conjugation paradigms exist as follows:

volať, to call	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	volám	voláme	volal – volala – volalo
2nd person	voláš	voláte	-
3rd person	volá	volajú	-

bývať, to live, dwell, but not exist	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	bývam	bývame	býval – bývala – bývalo
2nd person	bývaš	bývate	-
3rd person	býva	bývajú	-

vracať, to return or to vomit	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	vraciam	vraciame	vracal – vracala – vracalo
2nd person	vraciaš	vraciate	-
3rd person	vracia	vracajú	-

robiť, to do, work	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	robím	robíme	robil – robila – robilo
2nd person	robíš	robíte	-
3rd person	robí	robia	-

vrátiť, to return	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	vrátim	vrátime	vrátil – vrátila – vrátilo
2nd person	vrátiš	vrátite	-
3rd person	vráti	vrátia	-

kupovať, to buy	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	kupujem	kupujeme	kupoval – kupovala – kupovalo
2nd person	kupuješ	kupujete	-
3rd person	kupuje	kupujú	-

zabudnúť, to forget	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	zabudnem	zabudneme	zabudol – zabudla – zabudlo
2nd person	zabudneš	zabudnete	-
3rd person	zabudne	zabudnú	-

vidieť, to see	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	vidím	vidíme	videl – videla – videlo
2nd person	vidíš	vidíte	-
3rd person	vidí	vidia	-

minúť, to spend, miss	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	miniem	minieme	minul – minula – minulo
2nd person	minieš	miniete	-
3rd person	minie	minú	-

niesť, to carry	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	nesiem	nesieme	niesol – niesla – nieslo
2nd person	nesieš	nesiete	-
3rd person	nesie	nesú	-

stučnieť, to carry	Singular	Plural	Past tense
1st person	stučniem	stučnieme	stučnel – stučnela – stučnelo
2nd person	stučnieš	stučniete	-
3rd person	stučnie	stučnejú	-

	byť, to be	jesť, to eat	vedieť, to know
1st singular	som	jem	viem
2nd singular	si	ješ	vieš
3rd singular	je	je	vie
1st plural	sme	jeme	vieme
2nd plural	ste	jete	viete
3rd plural	sú	jedia	vedia
Past tense	bol, bola, bolo	jedol, jedla, jedlo	vedel, vedela, vedelo

Adverbs

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

Prepositions

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 preposition od always calls for the genitive case, but some prepositions such as po can call for different cases depending on the intended sense of the preposition.

Vocabulary

Slovak 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 and East Slavic, 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, as their orthographies are based on the Cyrillic script.

English	Slovak	Czech	Polish	Rusyn	Ukrainian	Belarusian	Serbo-Croatian	Bulgarian	Slovenian
to buy	kupovať	kupovat	kupować	куповати	купувати	купляць	kupovati	купува	kupovati
Welcome	Vitajte	Vítejte	Witajcie	Вітайте	Вітаю	Вітаю	Dobrodošli	добре дошли	Dobrodošli
morning	ráno	ráno/jitro	rano/ranek	рано	рано/ранок	рана/ранак	jutro	утро	jutro
Thank you	Ďakujem	Děkuji	Dziękuję	Дякую	Дякую	Дзякуй	Hvala	благодаря	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

bakuľa: baculum
kláštor: claustrum
kostol: castellum
košeľa: casula
machuľa: macula
škola: scola
skriňa: skrinium
titul: titulus

English

Sports:

športovať: to do sports
šport: sport
futbal: football
ofsajd: offside
aut: out
hokej: hockey
bodyček: body check

Food:

hemendex: ham & eggs
kečup: ketchup

Clothing:

džínsy: jeans
legíny: leggings
sveter: sweater
tenisky: tennis shoes

Exclamations:

fajn: fine
super: super
okej: OK

German

Nouns:

brak: Brack
cech: Zeche
cieľ: Ziel
cín: Zinn
deka: Decke
drôt: Draht
erb: erben
faloš: Falschheit
farba: Farbe
fašiangy: Fasching
fialka: Veilchen
fľaša: Flasche
fúra: Fuhre
gróf: Graf
hák: Haken
helma: Helm
hoblík: Hobel
jarmok: Jahrmarkt
knedľa: Knödel
minca: Münze
ortieľ: Urteil
pančucha: Bundschuh
plech: Blech
regál: Regal
ruksak: Rucksack
rúra: Rohr
rytier: Ritter
šachta: Schacht
šindeľ: Schindel
šnúra: Schnur
taška: Tasche
téma: Thema
vaňa: Badewanne
Vianoce: Weihnachten
vločka: Flocke
žumpa: Sumpf

Verbs:

študovať: studieren
vinšovať: wünschen
* Note: colloquially, the standard term in Slovak is želať

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 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:

"wicker whip": Slovak korbáč – Hungarian korbács;
"dragon/kite": Slovak šarkan – Hungarian sárkány.
"rumour": Slovak chýr, Hungarian hír;
"camel": Slovak ťava, Hungarian teve;
"ditch": Slovak jarok, Hungarian árok;
"glass": Slovak pohár, Hungarian pohár;

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Slovak :
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: