Slovak language

The Slovak language (Slovenčina, Slovensk� jazyk):

is an Indo-European language, more exactly a West Slavic language (together with mainly the Czech, Polish and Sorbian language)
is the official language of Slovakia and since 2004 one of the languages of the EU
is spoken in Slovakia (by 4.5 million people), the USA (500.000, emigrants), the Czech Republic (320.000, due to former Czechoslovakia), Hungary (110.000, ancient ethnic minority), Serbia (80.000, ancient ethnic minority), Romania (22.000, ancient ethnic minority), Poland (20.000), Canada (20.000, emigrants), Australia (emigrants), Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia and some other countries
has the language code sk or slk or slo (according to ISO 639).

The correct American English adjective for the language, people, and culture of Slovakia is Slovak; Slovak belongs to the Slavic group of languages. British usage employs Slovakian for the American Slovak and uses Slavonic where the American usage is Slavic

Table of contents

1 Alphabet:
2 Pronunciation and Spelling
3 Orthography:
4 Syntax and Word Order
5 Morphology:

5.1 Articles (Členy):
5.2 Nouns (Podstatn� men�):
5.3 Adjectives (Pr�davn� men�):
5.4 Pronouns (Z�men�):
5.5 Numerals (Č�slovky):
5.6 Verbs (Sloves�):
5.7 Adverbs (Pr�slovky):
5.8 Prepositions (Predložky):
5.9 Conjunctions (Spojky), Particles (Častice), Interjections (Citoslovce):

6 Vocabulary:
7 History:
8 Relation to other languages
9 Main Differences to the Czech language:
10 Dialects:
11 Related links

11.10 External links

Alphabet:

The Slovak language uses a modified Roman (Latin) alphabet. Modified means that it uses four types of diacritical marks (ˇ, �, �, ^; see Pronunciation) placed above some letters.

The lexicographic ordering of the Slovak alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet: A B C D DZ E F G H CH I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The complete alphabet, however, allows for characters with diacritics (the character with diacritics always comes after the same character without diacritics) and is as follows: a � � b c č d ď dz dž e � f g h ch i � j k l ľ ĺ m n ň o � � p q r ŕ s š t ť u � v w x y � z ž. Note that dz, dž and ch are considered single letters and that ch follows the h (not the c). The letters "q" and "w" are only used in foreign words, never in native Slovak words.
The names of the letters (like in English ey, bee, cee, dee …) are: a, �, �, c�, č�, d�, ď�, dz�, dž�, e, �, ef, g�, h�, ch�, i, �, j�, k�, el, eľ, eĺ, em, en, eň, o, �, �, p�, kv�, er, eŕ, eš, t�, ť�, u, �, v�, dvojit� v�, iks, ypsilon, zet, žet (for pronunciation see below)
Vowels are: a � � e � i � o � y � u �.
Diphthongs are: ia, ie, iu, �.
Consonants are: b c č d ď dz dž f g h ch j k l ľ ĺ m n ň p q r ŕ s š t ťv w x z ž. The consonants r, l, ŕ, ĺ are considered vowels in some cases (see Pronunciation).

Pronunciation and Spelling

The Slovak language has distinctive palatalization
The accent (stress) is always on the first syllable. It is weaker than the English or German or Russian accent, but stronger than the French one. Monosyllabic conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of the verb to be are not stressed (officially at least).
Prepositions are pronounced together with the following word (officially at least)
The acute mark (in Slovak dĺžeň, i.e. prolongation mark) indicates the long pronunciation of the character below it, e.g. � = approximately iii . The acute can be above all vowels and only above the 2 consonants "l" and "r" (strictly speaking, the r and l are called vowels then, because in Slovak r and l can function either as a vowel (long or short) – a so-called syllabic r,l - or as a consonant, although they are pronounced the same way in both cases). Long vowels are 2-3 times longer than corresponding normal (i.e. short) vowels, the long l or r should have an even longer pronunciation. Note that the acute mark has nothing to do with accent in the Slovak language.
The circumflex (vok�ň) exists only above the letter "o" (and turns the o into a diphthong – see below).
The diaresis (umlaut, "dve bodky" = two dots) is only used above the letter "a" (and turns the a into e – see below).
The caron (in Slovak m�kčeň, i.e. palatalization mark or softening mark) indicates the soft pronunciation (i.e. palatalization) of the character (always a consonant) below it. Only 8 consonants can bear a caron, i.e. not all “normal” (i.e. hard) consonants have a soft counterpart.
- In printed texts, the palatalization mark is printed in two forms: (1) č, dž, š, ž and (2) ľ,ď,ť (looking more like an apostrophe), but this is just a convention. In handwritten texts, it takes always the form (1).
- Phonetically, there are two forms of palatalization: ľ,ň,ď,ť are pronounced approximately as if there was a Slovak j behind them, while the č, dž, š, ž have a special pronunciation (see below) .
To accelerate writing, a rule has been introduced that the frequent character combinations ňe, ďe, ťe, ľe, ňi, ľi, ďi, ťi , ň�, ľ�, ď�, ť� must be written ne, de, te, le, ni, di, ti, li (i.e. without the caron).In other words ne, de, te, le, ni, di etc. are pronounced as if there were a caron above the consonant. There are, however, many exceptions from this rule, especially in many foreign words (e.g. telef�n is pronounced with a hard t and a hard l).
ľ is nowadays very often but wrongly (esp. in western Slovakia, and esp. in li, le where the caron is not written) pronounced as a normal l (An analogous tendency occurs in European Spanish, where however the ll is pronounced like English y instead of l).

Particular characters:

b, d , f, h, l, k, m, n, p, x are pronounced (more or less) like in normal English pronunciation

ia, ie, iu, � [i.e. uo] are diphthongs, i.e. both elements are pronounced “together” and the first one is almost a Slovak j (for ia, ie, iu) and almost an English w (for �)

a – u in cut

� – a in father (long a)

� - e in set (or in archaic pronunciation like a in fat)

c – ts in its

č - ch in child

ď - approx. British d in during, dew

dz - approx. d+z (voiced c; like the Italian „zz“ in organizzare)

dž - j in John (voiced č)

e – e in set

� – ai in fair (long e)

g – g in go

ch – Scottish ch, e.g. in Loch Ness (approx. like German ch, Russian x)

i – i in sit

� – ee in need (long i)

j – y in yes

ľ - approx. l in lurid (like "gli..." in Italian or "ll" in European Spanish)

ĺ – approx. lll

ň - approx. n in new (like French gn or Spanish �)

o – o in odd

� – aw in saw, a in ball (long o)

r - rolled r like in Italian, Scottish, Bavarian (and like a Spanish r that is not before a vowel and not at the beginning of the word, e.g. in color)

ŕ – approx. rrr (approx. like Spanish rr in zorro)

s – s in save

š - sh in she

ť - approx. t in tutor

� - approx. wo in wonder

q – like Slovak kv

u – u in put

� - oo in choose (long u)

v – v in very (but before a consonant or at the end of a word like the w in window)

y - like Slovak i

� – like Slovak � (long y)

z – z in zone

ž - s in pleasure (like French j in journal or g in g�n�ral)

w – like Slovak v

In addition, the following rules hold:

when a voiced consonant having a voiceless correspondent (i.e. b,d,ď, dz, dž, g, h, v, z, ž) stands at the end of the word, it is pronounced as a voiceless consonant (i.e. p, t, ť, c, č, k, ch, f, s, š, respectively), e.g. pohyb is pronounced [pohyp], pr�pad is pronounced [pr�pat]
(the assimilation rule) when voiced consonant(s) having a voiceless correspondent and voiceless consonant(s) meet in the word, all consonants of the group are pronounced as voiced if the last consonant is a voiced one, or as voiceless if the last consonant is a voiceless one, e.g. ot�zka is pronounced [ot�ska], vzchopiť sa is pronounced [fschop…]
(the rhythmical rule); a long syllable (i. e. a syllable containing �, �, �, �, �, �, ŕ, ĺ, ia, ie, iu, �) cannot be followed by another long syllable, i. e. the following syllable must be made short (in writing and pronunciation) ; this rule has implications for the formation, declension (e. g. žen�m but tr�vam) and conjugation (e. g. nos�m but s�dim) of words; there are several exceptions from this rule; this rule is typical of the Slovak language (not existing in Czech, for example)

Orthography:

The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonetic principle (i. e. “Write as you hear”) – as opposed to the English spelling where the etymological principle is primary. The secondary principle is the morphological principle (i. e. all forms derived from the same stem are written 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, e. g. pekn� (nice – sg) vs. pekn� (nice-pl. ).

Most foreign words receive Slovak spelling immediately or after some time, e.g. weekend is "v�kend", software is “softv�r” (but some 15 years ago spelled the English way), and quality is spelled "kvalita". However, personal and geographical names keep their original spelling, unless there is a fully Slovak form for the name (e.g. Lond�n for London) or they are originally written in non-Latin characters – such as Arabic or Chinese – of course.

Syntax and Word Order

The main features of Slovak syntax are:

The verb (predicate) agrees in person and number with its subject - just like e. g. in German, Slavic and Romance languages
An adjective, pronoun and partly also a numeral agrees in person, gender and case with the noun it refers to. (See Slovak declension) – just like in most Slavic languages
An adjective always precedes the corresponding noun - like in English, unlike in Polish and Romance languages

The word order is relatively free (unlike in English or French), because – as opposed to English – the strong inflection of the words enables to identify the role of a word (subject, object, predicate etc. ) regardless of its placement within the sentence. The relatively free word order enables the Slovaks (just like other Slavs) to use the word order to convey information on which information is considered most important or new: Constituents with old information precede constituents with new information, or those that carry most emphasis. Examples:

Ten veľk� človek tam dnes otv�ra obchod = The big man opens a store there today. (Ten = The; veľk� = big; človek = man; tam = there; dnes = today; otv�ra =opens ; obchod = store)

Ten veľk� človek dnes otv�ra obchod tam = It is there that the big man works today

Dnes tam otv�ra obchod ten veľk� človek = It is the big man who works there today

Obchod tam dnes otv�ra ten veľk� človek = As for the store, it is opened there by the big man

However, the normal order is Subject-Verb-Object (like in English) and the word order is not completely arbitrary . For example, in the above example, the following combinations are not possible:

Otv�ra veľk� človek tam dnes obchod.

Obchod ten veľk� človek tam dnes otv�ra. . . .

Morphology:

Numerals (Č�slovky):

Verbs (Sloves�):

Verbs have three major conjugations distinguishing 3 persons and 2 numbers (singular and plural) – just like in English.

There are several conjugation paradigms- like in most European languages. Here is the conjugation of some randomly chosen verbs (the forms are given in the order: I – you (sg) – he/she/it – we – you (pl) – they ):

to be (byť): som – si –je –sme –ste- s�

to have (mať): m�m – m�š –m� –m�me –m�te –maj�

to work (pracovať): pracujem – pracuješ –pracuje –pracujeme- pracujete – pracuj�

to carry (niesť) nesiem – nesieš –nesie –nesieme – nesiete – nes�

to hide (skryť): skryjem – skryješ –skryje –skryjeme – skryjete - skryj�

Subject (personal) pronouns are often omitted unless they are emphatic - like in Italian or Spanish, unlike in Russian or English.

The infinitive always ends in -ť (see e.g. the above examples).

The English continuos form (i. e. to be . . . ing) is expressed by a change in the stem of the verb or by removing the prefix (note however that this statement is a strong simplification). The non-continuous version is called a perfective verb and the continuous version an imperfective verb. Example: :to hide = skryť, to be hiding = skr�vať

There are only 2 past tenses. Both are formed analytically. Examples for two verbs (note that the continuous form is considered a separate verb in Slavic languages):

skryť (to hide) : skryl som (I hided / I have hided); bol som skryl (I had hided)

skr�vať (to be hiding): skr�val som (I was hiding); bol som skr�val (I had been hiding)

There is only 1 future tense. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is identical with the present tense. Example:

skryť (to hide) : skryjem (I will hide / I will have hided)

skr�vať (to be hiding) : budem skr�vať (I will be hiding)

There are 2 conditional forms. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:

skryť (to hide) : skryl by som (I would hide), bol by som skryl (I would have hided)

skr�vať (to be hiding) : skr�val by som (I would be hiding), bol by som skr�val (I would have been hiding)

The passive voice is formed either like in English (to be + past participle) or like in Romance languages (using the reflexive pronoun sa):

skryť (to hide): je skryt� (he is hided); sa skryje (he is hided)

skr�vať (to be hiding): je skr�van� (he is being hided); sa skr�va (he is being hided)

The active present participle (= that is. . . ing ) is formed using the suffixes –�ci/ -iaci / - aci

skryť (to hide) : skryj�ci (that is hiding)

skr�vať (to be hiding): skr�vaj�ci (that is being hiding)

The gerund (= by/when . . . ing) is formed using the suffixes –�c / -uc / –iac/-ac

skryť (to hide): skryj�c (by/when hiding)

skr�vať (to be hiding): skr�vaj�c (by/when being hiding)

The active past participle (= that was . . . ing) was formed using the suffix –vš�, but is not used anymore today

The passive participle (= . . . ed) is formed using the suffixes -n� / -t� / -en�:

skryť (to hide): skryt� (hided)

skr�vať (to be hiding): skr�van� (being hided)

The verbal noun (= the . . . ing) is formed using the suffix –ie:

skryť (to hide): skrytie (the hiding)

skr�vať (to be hiding): skr�vanie (the continuous hiding)

Adverbs (Pr�slovky):

Are usually formed by replacing the adjective ending by the ending –o or sometimes –e / -y(sometimes both –o an d-e are possible). Examples:

vysok� (high) – vysoko (highly)

pekn� (nice) – pekne (nicely)

priateľsk� (friendly) – priateľsky (in a friendly manner)

r�chly (fast) – r�chlo / r�chle (quickly)

The comparative/superlative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjective comparative/superlative ending - (ej)š� by the ending –(ej)šie. Examples:

r�chly (fast)– r�chlejš� (faster) – najr�chlejš� (fastest):r�chlo (quickly) – r�chlejšie (more quickly) – najr�chlejšie (most quickly)

Prepositions (Predložky):

They are used like in English, except that, in addition, each single preposition is associated with a particular grammatical case and the noun following the preposition must take the ending of the case required by the preposition. Example:

from friends = od priateľov (priateľov is the genitive case of priatelia, because the preposition od (=from) is always associated with the genitive case)

Conjunctions (Spojky), Particles (Častice), Interjections (Citoslovce):

They work more or less like in the English language.

Vocabulary:

See: Common phrases in different languages To be continued. . .

History:

see History of the Slovak language

Relation to other languages

The Slovak language arose directly from the Proto-Slavic language independently on other Slavic languages (see History).

The present-day Slovak language is closely related to both the Polish and the Czech language. The difference between Slovak and Czech is approximately the same as that between Italian and Spanish, except that nowadays the Czechs and the Slovaks have more common words due to their long historic coexistence especially within Czechoslovakia. The Slovak is related to Czech especially in written form (because the Slovak literary language has taken over Czech spelling), but differs from it both phonetically and grammatically. However, the Slovak did not arise from the Czech language (neither from the Old nor from the Middle Czech) and the Czech language started to penetrate to Slovakia only in the 14th century. Adult educated Slovaks are able to understand both Czech and Polish without a translator. In general, it can be stated that during the existence of Czechoslovakia (and especially of a common television), the language has taken over many Czech words, idioms and some features of the syntax, and lost many typical Slovak expressions in turn. The future development after the split of Czechoslovakia (1993) remains to be seen, because close cultural and educational contacts did not disappear. Nowadays the ability to completely understand Czech, however, seems to disappear with a part of the youngest generation (and this is definitively the case with the Czech children in the opposit direction).

The Slovak standard language holds a central position among Slavic languages: It has common features with:

the Czech language [western neighbor of Slovakia]
the Polish language [northern neighbor of Slovakia] , e. g. the use of the prefix pre-, use of the consonant dz, and some vocabulary (teraz, pivnica)
South Slavic languages (especially Slovenian); this connection is due to the fact that the territory of present-day Hungary was inhabited by the Sloviene (see Great Moravia) before the Hungarians settled there in the 10th century, thus bringing about the rise of the Slovaks and Slovenians and of the corresponding languages
East Slavic languages [eastern neighbors of Slovakia; a Ruthenian/ Ukrainian minority lives in northern eastern Slovakia]

This central position makes it relatively easy for other Slavs to understand Slovak and vice-versa. Thus, Slovak provides a good starting point from which to branch off to any additional Slavic language. Note however that the above only holds for the standard (i. e. northern central Slovak) language, not necessarily for the dialects (see Dialects).

Slovak is not related to the (non-Slavic) Hungarian language and it has only borrowed a few (maybe 20) words from the Hungarian language, although Slovakia was part of Hungary from the 11th century to 1918. On the contrary, the Hungarian language borrowed a lot of words from the Slovak language (and the South Slavic languages), especially in the 10th century, when the nomadic Hungarians settled in present-day Hungary and had to take over basic vocabulary necessary for a civilized life (e. g. the words for: table, window, male sheep, brother, dear, dinner, supper, street, book, coat, pub, cherry, basket, key, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, German, shepherd, prince, king, servant, Christian, pagant, angel, miller, smith, county, county border, county leader. . . )

Main Differences to the Czech language:

Slovak phonemes that do not exist in the Czech language are �, dz, dž, ľ, ŕ, ĺ and the diphthongs ia /ie /iu /� (see Pronunciation). Czech phonemes that do not exist in the Slovak language are: ř, ě and the diphthong ou.
The Slovak, unlike Czech, uses palatalization more frequently (i.e., is phonetically “softer“)
There are huge differences in how basic phonemes (e.g., e) are pronounced in both languages.
The phonetic assimilation and a kind of "liaison" are much stronger in the Slovak language
The Slovak grammar:
- is much simpler (i.e. above all more regular) than Czech grammar, since the present-day Slovak language standard has been codified only in the 19th century.
- has different declension and conjugation endings and paradigms
- has only 6 grammatical cases (see Slovak declension), while the Czech has one additional case – the vocative case
Basic Slovak vocabulary is partly different, partly identical, partly very similar to the Czech language, and a few (almost) identical words have different meaning. The differences are mostly of simple historical origin (e.g. the word hej mentioned below was used in Great Moravia). As for professional terminology, except for biology (esp. all names of animals and plants), the Czech terminology was mostly taken over (in Slovakized form) for practical reasons. The Czech-Slovak Dictionary of Different Terms (1989, Prague) contains some 11.000 entries (without professional terminology):
- Examples of basic different words are: to speak (SK hovoriť – CZ mluvit), yeah (SK hej – CZ: jo), if (SK ak – CZ jestli, -li), Good bye (SK Dovidenia – CZ Nashledanou), January (SK janu�r – CZ leden), cat (SK mačka -CZ kočka), to kiss (SK bozkať – CZ l�bat), now (SK teraz – CZ nyn�, teď), goods (SK tovar – CZ zbož�) etc.
- Examples of typical small differences: endings (SK – cia, -dlo, -ť, -om - CZ – c(i)e, -tko, -t, -em ), expressions (SK treba, možno – CZ je třeba, je možn�), prepositions (SK na – CZ k, pro) . . .
- Examples of words with different meanings : SK topiť (to melt) – CZ topit (to heat), SK hork� (bitter) – CZ hork� (hot) . . .
The Czech language has no equivalents for many Slovak words and vice versa. Examples of no Czech equivalents: prepositions (popod, ponad, sponad. . . ), verbs (ľ�biť, poprehadzovať, pootv�rať. . . ), nouns (čižma, k�rňava, kaštieľ, hoľa). . . , pronouns (dakto, voľakto, henten . . . ) etc.
The Czech language does not have the Rhythmical Rule (see Pronunciation)
The Slovak uses the passive voice formed like in English less than the Czech, and prefers the passive voice formed using the reflexive pronoun sa (like in Romance languages) instead
The Slovaks use hundreds of dialects, while in the Czech Republic, the dialects have mostly disappeared

Dialects:

The spoken Slovak language consists of a large number of dialects that can be divided in 3 basic groups:

Eastern Slovak dialects (in Spis, Saris, 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)

They differ mostly in phonology, inflection and vocabulary. 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 e. g. 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 western Slovak can be considered fully mutually intelligible with the Czech language. The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges (Slovakia is a mountainous country). The above three groups already existed in the 10th century. All the three dialect groups are also spoken by the Slovaks living outside Slovakia (in Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria). 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 the Polish and the East Slavonic languages. However, historically, Slovak dialects arose as autonomous languages and they arose neither from the Czech, nor from the Polish, nor from the Ukrainian language.