Slovak (Slovenský)

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.

Documents in Slovak started to appear in the 15th century, however a widely accepted literary standard for Slovak did not emerge until the 19th century. Slovak literature flourished between 1918 and 1938 when the Slovak-speaking area became part of Czechoslovakia, though the Czech majority did not all recognise the separate status of the Slovak language.

Since the demise of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia has been an independent country and the Slovak and Czech languages have started to drift away from each other, though they are still more or less mutually intellegible.

Slovak alphabet (slovenská abeceda) & pronunciation

Slovak alphabet & pronunciation

Sample text in Slovak

Všetci ľudia sa rodia slobodní a sebe rovní, čo sa týka ich dostôjnosti a práv. Sú obdarení rozumom a majú navzájom jednať v bratskom duchu.

A recording of this text by Tomáš Spevák

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Slovak

Slovak language learning material