| Also Known As: Slovak,Slovakian,Slovak language
Description:
The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with slovenščina), sometimes incorrectly called “Slovakian”, is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian).
The Czech and Slovak languages are mutually intelligible which means that even after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia Czech may be used in all official proceedings and documents in Slovakia, and vice versa.
Slovak is spoken in Slovakia (by 5 million people), the United States (500,000), the Czech Republic (320,000), northern Serbia (60,000), Ireland (30,000), Romania (22,000), Hungary (20,000), Poland (20,000), Canada (20,000), Croatia (5,000), Australia, Austria, Ukraine, and Bulgaria.
Slovak uses a modification of the Latin alphabet. The modifications include the four diacriticals (ˇ, ´, ¨, ^; see Pronunciation) placed above certain letters.
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle, "Write as you hear". 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..... full article at Wikipedia |