| Slovak is spoken by about 5 million people in
Slovakia, and by about half a million people outside the country, primarily
in the United States and Canada. Slovak comes from Common Slavic, or Old
Slavonic. This was the original language from which all the Slavic languages
descended.
Slovak is related to Czech and Polish. It is divided
into three dialect areas: west, central and east. Slovak is written in
the Latin alphabet. Each letter is pronounced in only one way. Accents
are added to make vowels long or short. A mark called a mäkcen is
used to change the sound of some consonants. |
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| The earliest documents written in the language
date from the 15th century. Slovak developed as a national language in
the late 18th and early 19th centuries, prompted by a rise in the people's
awareness of their national identity and the need for education and literacy
in Slovak. The language was first codified by Anton Bernolák (1762-1813),
but its final standardization was brought about by L'udovít Štúr
(1815-56) and other nationalists, who made the speech of central Slovakia
the basis for modern literary Slovak. štúr began a daily
newspaper in Slovak in 1845 and encouraged novelists and poets to write
in Slovak. |
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Did you know? |
| Slovaks
have a rich collection of proverbs for everyday situations. "Každý
pes ináe šteká" translates as "Every dog barks differently".
"Dobró slovo lepšie od penazi" translates as "A kind word
is better than money". |
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| After 1876, the Hungarian government began its
policy of Magyarization. Slovak was banned from schools and public offices.
It survived only in churches and nationalist publications. In 1918, when
Czechoslovakia was created, the ban came to an end. However, Slovaks still
worked to keep their language distinct from Czech.
About 10% of the population is ethnic Hungarian.
They live primarily in the south, where Hungarian is taught in schools.
About 20,000 Ruthenians or Rusíni make up a minority in Eastern
Slovakia. They are related to Ukrainians and speak an Eastern Slavic language
similar to Ukrainian. |
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| Hi |
Ahoj |
| Good-bye |
Dovidenia |
| Yes |
Áno |
| No |
Nie |
| Please |
Prosím |
| Thank you |
D'akujem |
| Excuse me |
Prepácte
mi |
| I don't
understand |
Nerozumiem |
| What is
it called? |
Ako sa to
volá? |
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Did you know? |
| Jan
Kollár (1793-1825) collected Slavic folksongs and promoted cultural
cooperation among Slavic peoples. His 1821 poem,
Slávy dcéra
(The Daughter of Slavia) was a famous cycle of sonnets based on Slav mythology. |
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