Slovak language

(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).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language