Slovak language

Slovak language
West Slavic language of Slovakia, spoken by about 5.

6 million people there and in enclaves in the Czech Republic, Hungary, northern Serbia, and North America. Slovak was virtually an unwritten language until the late 18th century, largely because of the long political domination of Slovakia by Hungary and the much earlier literary cultivation of Czech, Slovak's western linguistic neighbour. Present-day literary Slovak was effectively consolidated by the 1850s on the basis of Central Slovak dialects.

* * *

Slovak  Slovenčina 

      West Slavic language closely related to Czech (Czech language), Polish (Polish language), and the Sorbian (Sorbian languages) languages of eastern Germany. It is the official language of Slovakia. Slovak is written in the Roman (Latin) alphabet. Although there are traces of the Slovak language in Latin documents of the 11th–15th century and in the Czech of the 14th–16th century, the earliest-known attempts to increase the use of written Slovak came in the 17th and 18th centuries, when Roman Catholics centred at the University of Trnava tried to introduce Slovak for use in their hymnal and other church books. The language did not become accepted as a literary language, however, until a group led by the Protestant L'udovít Štúr (1815–56) began to write in the central Slovak dialects. The language of these writings, as modified and codified by Martin Hattala in his grammar of 1852, rapidly gained approval and was accepted as standard.

      There are three major Slovak dialect groups: Eastern, Central, and Western. The Western dialects of Slovak shade into the Moravian dialects of the Czech language. Except for perhaps the extreme Eastern Slovak dialects and the Bohemian Czech dialect, all dialects of Slovak and Czech are mutually comprehensible, for there are no sharp linguistic frontiers. In general, Slovak has been more conservative phonetically, while Czech has undergone far-reaching changes since the 14th century; thus, Slovak has retained long syllabic l and r and a series of diphthongs. Slovak did not develop the distinctive sibilant ř sound of Czech.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Slovak language — Infobox Language name=Slovak nativename= slovenčina, slovenský jazyk familycolor=Indo European states=Slovakia, United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary etc. region=Central Europe speakers=over 6 million rank=104 fam2=Slavic… …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak declension — See also: Slovak language. Many Slovak words are given without translation on this page, for a translation see this dictionary [http://slovnik.zoznam.sk] Introduction The Slovak language, like most Slavic languages or like Latin, is an inflected… …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak literature —       the body of literature produced in the Slovak language. Until the 18th century there was no systematic attempt to establish a literary language on the basis of the Slovak dialects, which, though closely related to Czech, had developed a… …   Universalium

  • Slovak koruna — Infobox Currency currency name in local = slovenská koruna sk icon image 1 = Slovak Crown 01.jpg image title 1 = 20, 200, 500 korún image 2 = Coin 1sk small.jpg image title 2 = 1 koruna iso code = SKK using countries = flag|Slovakia inflation… …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak National Party (historical party) — The Slovak National Party (SNS, Slovak: Slovenská národná strana ) was a Slovak conservative and nationalist political party in the Kingdom of Hungary and then in Czechoslovakia from 1871 to 1938. The post Velvet Revolution party with the same… …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak Wikipedia — Infobox website name = Slovak Wikipedia collapsible = yes caption = Slovak Wikipedia Main Page on 28 August 2008 url = http://sk.wikipedia.org/ commercial = No location = Miami, Florida type = Internet encyclopedia project language = Slovak… …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak nationality law — is based on the principles of Jus sanguinis. Slovak citizenship is primarily acquired on the basis of descent from a Slovak parent, rather than birth in the territory of Slovakia. Contents 1 Acquisition of Slovak citizenship 1 January 1993 …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak American — Infobox Ethnic group group = Slovak American caption = Notable Slovak Americans: Eugene Cernan Michael Strank Paul Newman James Caviezel Štefan Banič Jozef Murgaš flagicon|Slovakia flagicon|USA poptime = Slovak or Czechoslovak 1,239,167 Americans …   Wikipedia

  • Slovak — 1. adjective Of, from, or pertaining to Slovakia, the Slovak people or the Slovak language. 2. noun a) A person from Slovakia or of Slovak descent. b) The language of Slovakia …   Wiktionary

  • Slovak — The word Slovak may refer to: * a member of the western Slavic people collectively known as the Slovaks * the Slovak language * matters relating to the country of Slovakia ( Slovakian being an alternative adjective) * Hillel Slovak, a now… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”