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Slovak (/ ˈ s l oʊ v æ k,-v ɑː k / SLOH-va(h)k; endonym: slovenčina [ˈslɔʋentʂina] or slovenský jazyk [ˈslɔʋenskiː ˈjazik]) 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 ...
Slovak language, West Slavic language closely related to Czech, Polish, and the Sorbian 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.
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Slavic languages, group of Indo-European languages spoken in most of eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of central Europe, and the northern part of Asia. The Slavic languages, spoken by some 315 million people at the turn of the 21st century, are most closely related to the languages of the Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian, and the now-ext...
The Slavic language group is classified into three branches: (1) the South Slavic branch, with its two subgroups Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-Slovene and Bulgarian-Macedonian, (2) the West Slavic branch, with its three subgroups Czech-Slovak, Sorbian, and Lekhitic (Polish and related tongues), and (3) the East Slavic branch, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian.
In the spoken Slavic dialects (as opposed to the sharply differentiated literary languages), the linguistic frontiers are not always apparent. There are transitional dialects that connect the different languages, with the exception of the area where the South Slavs are separated from the other Slavs by the non-Slavic Romanians, Hungarians, and German-speaking Austrians. Even in the latter domain, some vestiges of the old dialectal continuity (between Slovene, Serbian, and Croatian on the one hand and Czech and Slovak on the other) can be traced; similar remnants of the old links are seen in comparing Bulgarian and Russian dialects.
Thus, it should be noted that the traditional family tree of the Slavic group with three separate branches is not to be taken as the real model of historical development. It would be more realistic to represent the historical development as a process in which tendencies to differentiate and to reintegrate the dialects have been continuously at work, bringing about a remarkable degree of uniformity throughout the Slavic area.
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Still it would be an exaggeration to suppose that communication between any two Slavs is possible without any linguistic complications. The myriad differences between the dialects and languages in phonetics, grammar, and, above all, vocabulary may cause misunderstandings even in the simplest of conversations; and the difficulties are greater in the language of journalism, technical usage, and belles lettres, even in the case of closely connected languages. Thus, Russian zelënyj ‘green’ is recognizable to all Slavs, but krasnyj ‘red’ means ‘beautiful’ in the other languages. In Serbian and Croatian vrijedan means ‘hard-working,’ but Russian vrednyj means ‘harmful.’ Suknja is ‘skirt’ in Serbian and Croatian, ‘coat’ in Slovene. The month listopad is October in Croatian, November in Polish and Czech.
For example, Slovak (West Slavic) and Ukrainian (East Slavic) are bridged by the Rusyn language/dialect of Eastern Slovakia and Western Ukraine. Similarly, the Croatian Kajkavian dialect is more similar to Slovene than to the standard Croatian language.
The Slovaks ( Slovak: Slováci, singular: Slovák, feminine: Slovenka, plural: Slovenky) are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak the Slovak language . In Slovakia, c. 4.4 million are ethnic Slovaks of 5.4 million total population.
Key to these peoples and cultures are the Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian to the east; Polish, Czech, and Slovak to the west; and Slovenian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian to the south.
Slovak is a Western Slavonic language spoken by about 5.6 million people in Slovakia and also in Canada, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the USA. Slovak is closely related to Czech , Polish, and Sorbian .
