Origins

Slovak is a language belonging to the family of Western Slavic languages. It derived directly from the original proto-Slavic language, starting with phonological differentiation in the 6th and 7th Centuries. It is today mutually intelligible with the Czech language, and remains quite close to Polish, which is also a Western Slavic language. Slovak suffered the strong influence of Latin, which was the official administrative and clergy language for centuries. It also has a historical impact from Czech, a trend which continued even in modern times with the unification of Czechoslovakia under the Communist regime.

Official Language

Slovak is the official language of Slovakia. It’s also official at a regional level in the area of Vojvodina in Serbia. Slovakia joined the European Union in 2004, and the language became one of the EU officials. Slovak is spoken by about 6 million people in the world, thus ranking at the 104th position. It is the language of emigrants' communities, the most considerable of which are in the United States, Canada, Australia, and in European countries with historically based Slovak populations, like Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Varieties

Slovak's most significant varieties are considered the regional deviations from Standard Slovak spoken by Slovak minorities in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Vojvodina, etc. Due to the isolation, varying in temporary sets, these varieties preserved a given stage of the native language, adding the influence of the superstrate – the language of the geographic area they are spoken in at present.

Brief History

Slovak has a remarkable history among the Slavic languages. It was among the first to deviate from the standard norms of the proto-Slavic language, having derived directly from it. In the 6th Century, the process of phonological differentiation started first.

The influence of Latin, which was the official language of the administration and religious authorities, was paralleled from the 9th Century by a process of cyrillisation, due to the activity of Saint brothers Cyril and Methodius in the region of Moravia.

In various stages and due to different historical factors, Slovak was strongly influenced by Czech. Thus, the language couldn’t make it to standardisation until the 17th – 18th Century, when such processes were finally enhanced. The two centuries of standardization and elan towards establishing a strong national identity resulted in a language that was considerably different from Czech. With the unification of the two states into Czechoslovakia until the collapse of the Communist regime, the strong influence of Czech was somewhat re-established. Today, both languages are mutually intelligible to a considerable degree.

Did you know?

Slovak, along with Czech and Polish, belongs to the family of Western Slavic languages. It derived directly from the proto-Slavic languages, and despite being one of the first to take its own path of development, it was not able to reach standardization until the 18th Century.