(in English)
Spoken natively in Slovakia;
minority language in Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary.
Native speakers over 5 million
(2001 census).
Language family - Indo-European,
Balto-Slavic, Slavic, West Slavic, Czech-Slovak, Slovak.
Writing system - Latin (Slovak
alphabet).
Slovak, slovenčina, not to be confused with slovenski jezik
or slovenščina, the native name of the Slovene language), is an
Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages (together with
Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian).
Slovak is the official language of Slovakia where it is spoken by 5 million
people. There are also Slovak speakers in the United States, the Czech Republic,
Serbia, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Canada, Hungary, Croatia, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Austria, and Ukraine.
Alphabet
Slovak uses a Latin script with small modifications that include the four
diacritics (ˇ, ´, ¨, ˆ; see Pronunciation) placed above certain letters.
Orthography
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 (see below).
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.
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, for example
pekný (nice – sg.) vs pekní (nice – pl.), both pronounced [pekniː].
Most foreign words receive Slovak spelling immediately or after some time.
For example, "weekend" is spelled víkend, "software"
- softvér, "gay" - gej (both not exclusively), and
"quality" is spelled kvalita (possibly from Italian qualità).
Personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep
their original spelling, unless there is a fully Slovak form for the name (for
example Londýn for "London").
The acute mark (in Slovak "dĺžeň", "prolongation mark")
indicates a long vowel, for example í = approximately /i:/. This mark may
appear on any vowel except "ä" (wide "e", široké
"e" in Slovak). It may also appear above the consonants "l"
and "r" (which, in such cases, are considered vowels).
The circumflex ("vokáň") exists only above the letter
"o". It turns the o into a diphthong (see below).
The umlaut ("prehláska", "dve bodky" = two dots) is
only used above the letter "a". It indicates a raised vowel, almost
an "e".
The caron (in Slovak "mäkčeň", "palatalization mark" or
"softener") indicates a change of alveolar fricatives into either
post-alveolar or palatal consonants, in informal Slovak linguistics often
called just "palatalization". Eight consonants can bear a caron. Not
all "normal" consonants have a "caroned" counterpart:
In printed texts, the caron is printed in two forms: (1) č, dž, š, ž, ň and
(2) ľ, ď, ť (looking more like an apostrophe), but this is just a convention.
In handwritten texts, it always appears in the first form.
Phonetically, there are two forms of "palatalization": ľ, ň, ď, ť
are palatal consonants, while č, dž, š, ž are postalveolar affricates and
fricatives.
To accelerate writing, a rule has been introduced that the frequent
character combinations ňe, ďe, ťe, ľe, ňi, ďi, ťi, ľi, ňí, ďí, ťí, ľí are
simply written ne, de, te, le, ni, di, ti, li, ní, dí, tí, lí (that is
without the caron). These combinations are usually pronounced as if there were
a caron above the consonant. There are exceptions:
foreign words (for example telefón is pronounced with a hard t and a
hard l)
the following words: ten (that), jeden (one), vtedy
(then), teraz (now)
nominative masculine plural endings of pronouns and adjectives do not
"soften" preceding n, d, t, l (for example tí odvážni mladí muži
/tiː odvaːʒni mladiː muʒi/, the/those brave young men)
short e in adjectival endings, which is derived from long é shortened by
the "rhythmical rule" (see below), does not "soften"
preceding n, d, t, l (for example krásne stromy /kraːsnɛ.../,
beautiful trees, c.f. zelené stromy /zɛlʲɛnɛː.../,
green trees)
ľ is nowadays pronounced by many speakers, particularly from western
Slovakia, as a non-palatalized l. In standard Slovak, li and le
are never palatalized; such palatalized pronunciation of li and le
is already a marked pronunciation (of a middle and eastern dialects, or a sign
of hypercorrectness). However, palatalizing li and le is
officially prescribed in literary Slovak and non-palatalized pronunciation is
considered incorrect.
In addition, the following rules hold:
When a voiced consonant having a voiceless correspondent (that is b,
d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž) stands at the end of the word before a pause, it is
pronounced as a voiceless consonant (that is p, t, ť, c, č, k, ch, s, š,
respectively), for example pohyb is pronounced /pohip/,
prípad is pronounced /priːpat/
When "v" stands at the end of the syllable, it is pronounced as
non-syllabic u (bilabial approximant /u̯/), with the
exception of the position before "n" or "ň", for example, kov
/kou̯/ (metal), kravský /krau̯skiː/
(cow - adjective), but povstať /pofstatʲ/ (uprise)
because the v is not at the end of the syllable (po-vstať), hlavný
/hlavniː/ because "v" stands before
"n" here
The assimilation rule: 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 /otaːska/, vzchopiť sa is pronounced /fsxopitsːa/. This rule applies also over the word boundary,
for example prísť domov /priːzdʲ domou̯/ (to come
home), viac jahôd /vi̯adzjahu̯ot/ (more
strawberries). The voiced counterpart of "ch" /x/
is /ɣ/.
The rhythmical rule: A long syllable (that is, a syllable containing
á, é, í, ý, ó, ú, ŕ, ĺ, ia, ie, iu, ô) cannot be followed by another long
syllable in the same word. This rule has morphonemic implications (for example žen-ám
but tráv-am) and conjugation (for example nos-ím but súd-im).
There are several exceptions to this rule. It is typical of the literary Slovak
language, and does not appear in Czech, or in some Slovak dialects.
One of the most important changes in Slovak orthography in the 20th century
was in 1953 when s began to be written as z where pronounced [z] in prefixes, for example smluva into zmluva,
sväz into zväz. (That is, the phonemic principle has been given
priority over the etymological principle in this case.)
Along with English, Slovak is one of the few languages to feature
heterophonic homographs, the most common examples being krásne /ˈkraːsne/ (beautiful) vs. krásne /ˈkraːsɲe/
(beautifully).
Official transcriptions
Slovak linguists do not usually use IPA for phonetic transcription of their
own language or others, but have their own system based on the Slovak alphabet.
Many English language textbooks make use of this alternative system of
'phonetic' transcription, a factor which probably contributes to some Slovaks
developing a particular ('incorrect') pronunciation of certain English
phonemes. In the following table, pronunciation of each grapheme is given in
this system as well as in the IPA.
Some additional notes (transcriptions in IPA unless otherwise stated):
Pronunciation of ä as [æ] is already archaic
(or dialectical) but still considered correct by some authorities; the other
standard pronunciation today is [ɛ].
r and l can be syllabic /r̩/ and /l̩/ and behave as vowels. When they are used in this manner,
they may be written with the acute accent (ŕ and ĺ). e.g., vlk
(wolf), prst (finger), štvrť (quarter), krk (neck),
bisyllabic vĺča—vĺ-ča (wolfling), vŕba—vŕ-ba
(willow-tree), etc.
ch, normally the unvoiced [x].
The graphic group -ou (at the end of words) is pronounced [ɔu̯] but is not considered a separate diphthong. Its phonemic
interpretation is /ov/.
ia, ie, iu form diphthongs /i̯a/ /i̯e/ /i̯u/
in native Slovak words, but two monophthongs in foreign and loan words.
m has the allophone [ɱ] in front of the labiodental
fricatives /f/ and /v/.
n in front of (post)alveolar fricatives has an allophone written as /n̠/ in Slovak phonemic transcription.
n can be [ŋ] in front of the velar plosives /k/ and /ɡ/.
Phonology
^
The postalveolar consonants are often pronounced
with retroflexion, similar to Russian and Polish.
^
/v/ is frequently pronounced
as a labiodental approximant, particularly in the syllable onset before a vowel
or sonorant.
In the standard language, the
stress is always on the first syllable of a word (or on the preceding
preposition, see below). This is not the case in certain dialects. The eastern
dialects, for example, have penultimate stress, which at times makes them
difficult for speakers of Standard Slovak to understand. Some of the
north-central dialects have a weak stress on the first syllable, which becomes
stronger and "moves" to the penultimate in certain cases. Monosyllabic
conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of
the verb byť (to be) are, as a rule, not stressed.
Prepositions form a single
prosodic unit with the following word, unless the word is long (four syllables
or more) or the preposition stands at the beginning of a sentence.
Syntax
The main features of Slovak
syntax are:
The verb (predicate) agrees in
person and number with its subject. For example:
Speváčka spieva.
(The+female+singer is+singing.)
(Speváčk-a spieva-0, where -0 is
a third person singular ending)
Speváčky spievajú.
(Female+singers are+singing.)
(Speváčk-y spieva-j-ú; -ú is a
third person plural ending, and /j/ is a hiatus sound)
My speváčky spievame. (We
the+female+singers are+singing.)
(My speváčk-y spieva-me, where
-me is the first person plural ending)
and so forth.
Adjectives, pronouns and numerals
agree in person, gender and case with the noun to which they refer.
Adjectives precedes their noun.
Botanic or zoological terms are exceptions (for example, mačka divá,
literally "cat wild", Felis silvestris), as is the naming of
Holy Spirit (Duch Svätý) in a majority of churches.
Word order in Slovak is
relatively free, since strong inflection enables the identification of thematic
roles (subject, object, predicate, etc.) regardless of word placement. This
relatively free word order allows the use of word order to convey topic and
emphasis.
Examples:
Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára
obchod. = That big man opens a store there today. (ten = that; veľký
= big; muž = man; tam = there; dnes = today; otvára
= opens; obchod = store) - The word order is does not emphasize any
specific detail, just general information.
Ten veľký muž dnes otvára
obchod tam. = That big man is today opening a store there. - This word
order emphasizes the place (tam = there).
Dnes tam otvára obchod ten
veľký muž. = Today over there a store is being opened by that big man. -
This word order focuses on the person who is opening the store (ten =
that; veľký = big; muž = man).
Obchod tam dnes otvára ten
veľký muž. = The store over there is today being opened by that big man. -
Depending on the pronunciation the focus can be either on the store itself or
on the person.
The unmarked order is
Subject-Verb-Object. Nevertheless, word order is not completely free. In the
above example, the following combinations are not possible:
Ten otvára veľký muž tam dnes
obchod.
Obchod muž tam ten veľký dnes
otvára. ...
And the following are not
correct:
Otvára ten veľký muž tam dnes
obchod? (Correct is Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára obchod? or Ten
veľký muž dnes otvára obchod tam? or Tam dnes otvára obchod ten veľký
muž?)
Obchod ten veľký muž dnes tam
otvára. (Only possible in a poem or a similar style.)
Morphology
Articles
There are no articles in the
Slovak language. The demonstrative pronoun ten (fem: tá, neuter: to) may be
used in front of the noun in situations where definiteness must be indicated.
Numerals
There are unique forms for 0-10.
11-19 are formed by the numeral plus "násť." Compound numerals (21,
1054) are combinations of these words formed in the same order as their
mathematical symbol is written (for example 21 = dvadsaťjeden, literally
"twenty one").
The numerals are: (1) jeden
(jedno (neuter), jedna (feminine)), (2) dva (dve (neuter, feminine)), (3) tri,
(4) štyri, (5) päť, (6) šesť, (7) sedem, (8) osem, (9) deväť, (10) desať, (11)
jedenásť, (12) dvanásť, (13) trinásť, (14) štrnásť, (15) pätnásť, (16)
šestnásť, (17) sedemnásť, (18) osemnásť, (19) devätnásť, (20) dvadsať, (21)
dvadsaťjeden,... (30) tridsať, (31) tridsaťjeden,... (40) štyridsať,... (50)
päťdesiat,... (60) šesťdesiat,... (70) sedemdesiat,... (80) osemdesiat,... (90)
deväťdesiat,... (100) sto, (101) stojeden,... (200) dvesto,... (300)
tristo,... (900)deväťsto,... (1,000) tisíc,... (1,100) tisícsto,... (2,000) dvetisíc,...
(100,000) stotisíc,... (200,000) dvestotisíc,... (1,000,000) milión,...
(1,000,000,000) miliarda,...
Counted nouns have two forms:
their most common form is in plural genitive (päť domov = five houses or
stodva žien = one hundred two women), while the plural form of the noun
when counting the amount of 2, 3, 4 is in nominative, which is the form as
without counting (dva domy = two houses or dve ženy = two women).
Verbs
Verbs have three major
conjugations. Three persons and two numbers (singular and plural) are
distinguished. There are several conjugation paradigms.
á-Type Verbs volať, to call: volám,
voláš, volá, voláme, voláte, volajú.
á-Type Verbs - rhythmic law bývať,
to live: bývam, bývaš, býva, bývame, bývate, bývajú.
á-Type Verbs - soft stem vracať,
to return or (mostly in slang) to vomit: vraciam, vraciaš, vracia, vraciame,
vraciate, vracajú.
í-Type Verbs robiť, to do,
work: robím, robíš, robí, robíme, robíte,
robia.
í-Type Verbs - rhythmic law vrátiť, to return: vrátim, vrátiš, vráti,
vrátime, vrátite, vrátia.
ie-Type Verbs vidieť, to see: vidím,
vidíš, vidí, vidíme, vidíte, vidia.
e-Type Verbs –ovať kupovať, to buy: kupujem, kupuješ, kupuje,
kupujeme, kupujete, kupujú.
e-Type Verbs - (typically -Cnuť) zabudnúť, to forget: zabudnem, zabudneš,
zabudne, zabudneme, zabudnete, zabudnú.
ie-Type Verbs - (typically -Vnuť)
minúť, to spend, miss: miniem, minieš,
minie, minieme, miniete, minú.
ie-Type Verbs - -cť, -sť, -zť niesť, to carry: nesiem, nesieš, nesie,
nesieme, nesiete, nesú.
ie-Type Verbs - -nieť stučnieť,
to carry (be fat): stučniem, stučnieš, stučnie, stučnieme, stučniete, stučnejú.
Irregular Verbs –
byť, to be: som, si, je, sme,
ste, sú/ bol, bola, bolo
jesť, to eat: jem, ješ, je, jeme, jete, jedia/ jedol,
jedla, jedlo
vedieť, to know: viem, vieš,
vie, vieme, viete, vedia/ vedel, vedela, vedelo
Subject personal pronouns are
omitted unless they are emphatic.
Non-continuous time is indicated
with a perfective verb and the continuous version with an imperfective verb
which is formed on the perfective stem. These are considered separate lexemes.
Example: :to hide = skryť, to be hiding = skrývať
Historically, there were two past
tenses. Both are formed analytically. One of these is not used in the modern
language, being considered dated and/or grammatically incorrect. Examples for
two related verbs:
skryť (to hide) : skryl som
(I hid / I have hidden); bol som skryl (I had hidden)
skrývať (to be hiding): skrýval
som (I was hiding); bol som skrýval (I had been hiding)
There is one future tense. For
imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is
identical with the present tense. Examples:
skryť (to hide) : skryjem (I
will hide / I will have hidden)
skrývať (to be hiding) :
budem skrývať (I will be hiding)
There are two 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 hidden)
skrývať (to be hiding) :
skrýval by som (I would be hiding), bol by som skrýval (I would have been
hiding)
The passive voice is formed
either as in English (to be + past participle) or using the reflexive pronoun
'sa':
skryť (to hide): je skrytý (he is
hidden); sa skryje (he is hidden)
skrývať (to be hiding): je
skrývaný (he is being hidden); sa skrýva (he is being hidden)
The active present participle
(=which is ...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úci/ -iaci / - aci
skryť (to hide) : skryjúci
skrývať (to be hiding):
skrývajúci
The transgressive (=by/when
...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úc / -uc / –iac/-ac
skryť (to hide): skryjúc
skrývať (to be hiding): skrývajúc
The active past participle (=
which was ...ing) was formerly formed using the suffix –vší, but is no longer
used.
The passive participle (= ...ed
(adj.)) is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:
skryť (to hide): skrytý (hid)
skrývať (to be hiding): skrývaný
(being hidden)
The 'verbal noun' (= the ...ing)
is formed using the suffix –ie:
skryť (to hide): skrytie (the
hiding)
skrývať (to be hiding): skrývanie
(the continuous hiding)
Adverbs
Adverbs are formed by replacing
the adjectival ending with the ending –o or –e/-y. Sometimes both –o and -e are
possible. Examples:
vysoký (high) – vysoko (highly)
pekný (nice) – pekne (nicely)
priateľský (friendly) –
priateľsky (in a friendly manner)
rýchly (fast) – rýchlo (quickly)
The comparative/superlative of
adverbs is formed by replacing the adjectival ending with a
comparative/superlative ending -(ej)ší or –(ej)šie. Examples:
rýchly (fast) – rýchlejší
(faster) – najrýchlejší (fastest): rýchlo (quickly) – rýchlejšie (more quickly)
– najrýchlejšie (most quickly)
Prepositions
Each preposition is associated
with one or more grammatical cases. The noun governed by a preposition must
appear in the case required by the preposition in the given context. Example:
from friends = od priateľov
Priateľov is the genitive case of
priatelia. It must appear in this case because the preposition od (=from)
always calls for its objects to be in the genitive.
throughout the square = po
námestí (locative case)
past the square = po námestie
(accusative case)
Po has a different meaning
depending on the case of its governed noun.
Relationships to other languages
The Slovak language is a
descendant of Proto-Slavic language, itself a descendant of Proto-Indo-European.
It is closely related to the other West Slavic languages, primarily to Czech,
but it also has some striking similarities with other Slavic languages,
primarily the Southern Slavic languages and Old Church Slavonic. It has been
also influenced by German, English, Latin and Hungarian.
Czech
Most dialects of Czech and Slovak
are mutually intelligible (see Differences between Slovak and Czech languages).
Eastern Slovak dialects are less intelligible with Czech; they differ from
Czech and from other Slovak dialects, and mutual contact between speakers of
Czech and speakers of the eastern dialects is limited.Also the language of
Slovak separated during the war.
Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia
it has been allowed to use Czech in TV broadcasting and - like any other
language of the world - during court proceedings (Administration Procedure Act
99/1963 Zb.). 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 (there are no such Czech municipalities in Slovakia). Since
1 September 2009 (due to an amendment to the State Language Act 270/1995 Z.z.) a
language "fundamentally intelligible with the state language" (i.e.
the Czech 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. Literary Slovak shares significant orthographic features with Czech,
as well as technical and professional terminology dating from the Czechoslovak
period, but there are phonetic, grammatical and vocabulary differences.
Other Slavic languages
Slavic language varieties tend to
be 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, there is
significant variation 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 Rusyn of all the Slovak
dialects, but both lack 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. There is also some mutual intelligibility with spoken Rusyn, Ukrainian
and even Russian (in this order), although their orthography, based on the Cyrillic
script, is very different.
There are also similarities with
the western Southern Slavic languages, i.e. Serbo-Croatian language and to a
lesser degree Slovenian stemming from the time before the arrival of the
Hungarians in Central Europe.
Note: Jak sja maješ? in Ukraine is often considered to be a Polonized
version of greeting. In proper Ukrainian grammar it would have been something
like Jak maješ-sja?
English
weekend - víkend, football -
futbal, ham & eggs - hemendex, offside - ofsajd, out (football) - aut, body
check (hockey) - bodyček
German
German loanwords include
"coins," Slovak mince, German Münze; "to
wish", Slovak vinšovať (colloquial, standard term: želať),
German wünschen; and "color," Slovak farba, German Farbe.
Hungarian
Hungarians and Slovaks have had a
language interaction ever since the settlement of Hungarians in the Carpathian
area. Hungarians adopted many words from various Slavic languages related to
agriculture and administration, and there are also a number of Hungarian
loanwords in Slovak. Examples include:
"wicker whip": Slovak korbáč
(the standard name for "whip" is bič and korbáč, itself
originating from Turkish kırbaç, usually means only 1 particular type of
it—the "wicker whip") – Hungarian korbács;
"dragon/kite": Slovak šarkan
(rather rare, drak is far more common in this meaning; šarkan
often means only "kite", esp. a small one that is flown for fun and
this term is far more common than drak in this meaning; for the
"dragon kite", the term drak is still used almost exclusively)
– Hungarian sárkány.
"rumour": Slovak chýr
– Hungarian hír;
"encumbrance": Slovak ťarcha
– Hungarian teher;
"camel": Slovak ťava
– Hungarian teve;
"ditch": Slovak jarok
– Hungarian árok;
Romanian
Romanian words entered the Slovak
language in the course of the so-called "Wallachian colonization" in
the 14th-16th century when sheep breeding became common in Slovak mountains.
Many of today's Slovak rustic-pastoral words like bača
("shepherd"; Rmn. baci), valach ("young
shepherd"; cf. the dated exonym for Romanians, "Valach"), magura
("hill"; Rmn. măgura), koliba("chalet"; Rmn. coliba),
bryndza (a variety of sheep cheese; Rmn. brânză), striga
("witch", "demon"; Rmn. "strigă/strigoi"), etc.
were introduced into the Slovak language by Romanian shepherds during the Late
Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times. The Romanian influence is most strongly
felt in the dialects of the Moravian Wallachia region.
Dialects
There are many varieties of
Slovak. These may be divided in four basic groups:
Eastern Slovak dialects (in Spiš,
Šariš, Zemplín and Abov)
Central Slovak dialects (in Liptov,
Orava, Turiec, Tekov, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer and the historic Zvolen county)
Western Slovak dialects (in
remaining Slovakia: Kysuce, Trenčín, Trnava, Nitra, Záhorie)
Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak
dialects (outside Slovakia in the Pannonian Plain in Serbian Vojvodina, and in
southeastern Hungary, western Romania, and the Croatian part of Syrmia)
The fourth group of dialects is
often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western
Slovak dialects (see e.g. Štolc, 1968), but it is currently undergoing changes
due to contact with surrounding languages (Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian) and
long-time geographical separation from Slovakia (see the studies in Zborník
Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov, e.g. Dudok, 1993).
The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary
and 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 Slovak capital Bratislava
(in western Slovakia) to understand a dialect from eastern Slovakia.
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 (USA, Canada, Croatian Slavonia, and elsewhere) and Central
and Western dialects form the basis of the Lowland dialects (see above).
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 (cf. Štolc, 1994). Lowland dialects share some words and areal
features with the languages surrounding them (Serbian, Hungarian and Romanian).
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