Slovak Language Review
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| Introduction | | Usefulness | The usefulness of Slovak is limited to Slovakia and Czech Republic. As in many countries in Central Europe, ESL teaching is widespread and many young adults and teenagers speak at least some English. Some of the older Slovakians speak varying degrees of Hungarian because of Slovakia's inclusion within the historical Hungarian kingdom from the 11th century to the 20th century. Some Slovakians today still hold mixed feelings (or even slight hostility) towards Hungarians, given the dominant position of Hungarians over the Slovaks during the era of the Hungarian kingdom. This was not helped by the process of forced cultural assimilation of Slovakians to Hungarian culture during the 19th century ('Magyarization' or 'Hungarianization'). As such, some Slovakians will be surprised or even slightly irritated if a tourist would use Hungarian. However, Slovakia (especially the southern regions) is home to a substantial Hungarian minority (approximately 550,000 people or roughly 10% of Slovakia's population) and a knowledge of Hungarian may serve well those who travel in these regions. Given the proximity to Austria and its ties to Germanic culture (courtesy of Slovakia's historical inclusion within the Austro-Hungarian Empire) German is still a useful language for Slovakians who work in tourism and commerce. Slovakia is somewhat less urbanized than Czech Republic, and it is slightly more difficult to find English speakers outside the larger Slovak cities. As such, a prospective visitor to smaller Slovak towns and villages should expect to encounter more people who speak only Slovak. Those who had come of age during the communist period also learned Russian as part of the mandatory imposition of Soviet culture during the Cold War. However, it is understandable that many of these Slovakians refuse to speak Russian because of the association with the oppressive days of communism and Soviet-led crushing of the Czech uprising against communism in August 1968 when Slovakia formed part of the federated Czechoslovak state. Because of the close linguistic tie to Czech, standard Slovak and standard Czech are still mutually intelligible for most adults. This intelligbility was reinforced during the days of a federated and later communist Czechoslovak state through much of the 20th century when Czech and Slovak were designated as the official languages. Official communications, literature and broadcasts were accessible to Czechs and Slovakians in both of these languages. It was quite easy for citizens to develop a strong passive knowledge of the other language. In addition, Slovak dialects were strongly influenced by Czech as Czech was the literary language of the Slovaks for a few centuries until the 18th or 19th century. With the breakup of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in 1993, the degree of mutual intelligibility is fading however. Many Czech teenagers and children now have more difficulty understanding Slovak than people who had grown up during Czechoslovakia's existence. Much the same is occuring in Slovakia with Slovak teenagers and children having increasing difficulty in understanding Czech. In a more general sense, a knowledge of Slovak is a useful base to learn other Slavonic languages. In Slovak you will encounter typically Slavonic grammatical and lexical specialities. See the appropriate section below for more information. | | | | | Chic factor | In spite of their connection to Czech culture, Slovakians are distinct and their language is not as well-known to Westerners. Many Slovakians do not regard their language as a major language for foreigners. As such, they will be pleasantly surprised if you take the time to learn some Slovak or tell them that you want to learn Slovak. They will be very tolerant of your mistakes and won't hesitate to help you learn, or if necessary switch to a language that you both know (e.g. English, German) While it may not convey the same sense of mystery or perhaps menace to a Westerner as a knowledge of its linguistic cousin: Russian (think KGB and dominating Soviet Olympic athletes), a knowledge of Slovak is a rather unusual attribute for a Westerner. | | Countries | Slovakia (official), spoken by Slovak immigrants and ethnic Slovakians in Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Canada and the United States. | | Speakers | Approximately 5.6 million in total. Of those about 5 million live in Slovakia. | | Economic importance | "Slovakia has mastered much of the difficult transition from a centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. The DZURINDA government made excellent progress during 2001-04 in macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform. Major privatizations are nearly complete, the banking sector is almost completely in foreign hands, and the government has helped facilitate a foreign investment boom with business-friendly policies, such as labor market liberalization and a 19% flat tax. Slovakia's economic growth exceeded expectations in 2001-04, despite the general European slowdown. Unemployment, at an unacceptable 15% in 2003-04, remains the economy's Achilles heel. Slovakia joined the EU on 1 May 2004." (Quoted directly from CIA World Fact Book - updated as of August 9, 2005 - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lo.html) | | Travel | Bratislava (capital and the most cosmopolitan of Slovak cities. It has a small but charming old town.)
Bojnice (site of what many consider to be the most beautiful castle in Slovakia)
Košice (second largest city with a beautiful main square and church. It also has a distinctive Hungarian accent because of its proximity to the Hungarian border.)
Vysoké Tatry (High Tatras. They are the Slovakian counterpart to the Alps with less expensive attractions. Plenty of opportunity for hikers, campers, skiiers and mountain climbers.)
Banská Štiavnica (small mining town, whose Old Town is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites)
Medzilaborce (contains a museum of American pop artist Andy Warhol. His parents were originally from a village near Medzilaborce and had emigrated to the USA before his birth. Incidentally, Warhol's parents were Slovakian by birth but of Rusyn origin. The Rusyns are a Slavonic minority who live in the eastern parts of Slovakia and are more closely akin to Ukrainians than Slovakians.)
Bardejov (a town in northeastern Slovakia that has a beautifully-restored old town)
Skansens (there are several open-air museums or 'skansens' which give visitors a glimpse of rural Slovakian life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some examples of skansens include those in Zuberec, Ždiar and Svidník)
Castles, castles, castles (Like the Czech Republic, Slovakia has many castles. In addition to the one in Bojnice, there are castles in Bratislava, Devín, Trenčín, Zvolen and Oravský Podzámok. Spišský hrad in the northeastern region of Spiš is actually now a ruin perched on a hill. However, it is well worth a visit. It still looks impressive and is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.) | | Variations | Standard Slovak is taught in schools and used for official purposes. Slovak dialects are usually divided into three groups: Western, Central and Eastern. The Central dialects form the basis of the standard language (see more under 'Culture'). In general, the Slovak dialects form a sort of continuum. The Western Slovak dialects merge gradually into the Moravian dialects of Czech as one crosses the border into the Czech Republic. As one travels east, the Eastern Slovak dialects gradually show more similarity to Polish and to a lesser extent Rusyn and Ukrainian. In the 'Links' section, I have included a few URLs for articles giving more information on Slovak dialects. | | Culture | Unfortunately, Slovak culture is little-known outside Slovakia. In literature, two of the better-known figures are the poets Pavol (Országh) Hviezdoslav and Ján Kollár. Literary Slovak was not standardized until the 18th century. Prior to this, it was common for Slovakians to use a Czech dialect in their literary works. The first attempt at standardization was made by Anton Bernolák in the 18th century. Bernolák's version of Slovak was based on its Western dialects. Two more major attempts at standardization were made in the 19th century. The first one was led by Ján Kollár and historian Pavol Šafárik whose version of literary Slovak combined elements of Czech dialects and Western Slovak dialects. However it was the second attempt by the scholar and poltician Ľudovít Štúr which had a lasting effect. Štúr's version of literary Slovak was based on the Central Slovak dialects and relied almost not at all on Czech dialects. This standard gained favour amongst many of the more nationalist Slovak writers and poets and gradually supplanted the other versions of literary Slovak.
Slovakia's best-known musician is arguably the classical composer, Jan Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), who was born in Bratislava (known as Pozsony to the Hungarians or Pressburg to the Austrians) and a student of Haydn and Mozart. | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles | | | | Difficulties | | | | | Difficulty | For English speakers, the greatest difficulties in my opinion are:
1) verbal aspect
2) verbs of motion
3) syntax
4) nominal and adjectival declension
5) vocabulary | | Pronunciation | Like Czech, stress in Slovak is fixed on the first syllable of words. Vowels can be long or short. Therefore, 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o' and 'u' each have a lengthened counterpart. There is a distinction between 'soft' and 'hard' consonants. In turn, this distinction is important not only in pronunication but grammar as well.
e.g. Mám cudziu knihu = I have a foreign book ('cudzi' is 'soft', and the accusative feminine form of 'cudzi' is different from the comparable form of 'hard' adjectives)
vs. Mám zelenú knihu = I have a green book.('zelená' is 'hard' and the accusative feminine form of 'zelená' is 'zelenú')
In spite of this, Slovak pronunication is rather simple despite the intimdating appearence to those unaccustomed to acute accents, hooks, umlauts and a few consonants that act like vowels (e.g. prst = finger - pronounced something like English 'perst' but the 'er' sound is quite short. Think of the English word 'bird', it's pronounced like 'brd' rather than 'beerd')
Slovak posesses what is called the 'rythmic law' meaning that most words have only one long syllable. This law applies to conjugations of verbs and adjectival declension as well. | | Grammar | Like other Slavonic languages, Slovak has elaborate inflections for its nouns and adjectives.
For nouns and adjectives, there are seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental and vocative. (However vocative has almost completely disappeared and only a few nouns and names have forms in the vocative)
There are three numbers: singular, dual and plural. However, the dual is present only in a few instances of declension. In other words, there is neither a complete nominal and adjectival declension in the dual nor dual personal pronouns (e.g. 'we two', 'you two') as in Slovenian.
There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter with the masculine divided further into animate and inanimate categories in the declensions of the nominative and accusative.
There are four moods: infinitive, indicative, conditional and imperative.
There are two voices: active and passive.
Because of Slovak's inflective nature, personal pronouns are usually omitted unless the speaker wishes to emphasize the subject of a sentence. In addition, syntax can be rather free compared to English as much of the relevant grammatical information of a sentence is revealed in the inflections, suffixes and prefixes of the words. Syntax usually depends on the focus or nuance that a speaker wishes to convey. There are a few rules regarding syntax however.
i) the reflexive pronoun goes in the second position except when used in the past tense
Češem sa doma = I comb myself at home (in general, as part of a routine at home)
Ja sa doma češem = I comb myself at home (emphasizing the fact that it is *I* who *DOES* comb himself regularly at home)
ii) the personal marker of the past tense always goes in the second position
Češal som sa doma = I was combing myself at home (in general, as part of a routine at home)
Ja som sa češal doma = I was combing myself at home (emphasizing the fact that it was *I* who was regularly combing himself at home)
iii) adjectives precede the nouns that they describe. In addition, adjectives must agree with the nouns that they describe.
slovenský muž = Slovak man (masculine animate nominative singular)
veľký zošit = big notebook (masculine inanimate nominative singular)
slovenská žena = Slovak woman (feminine nominative singular)
červené auto = red car (neuter nominative singular)
slovenskí muži = Slovak men (masculine animate nominative plural)
veľké zošity = big notebooks (masculine inanimate nominative plural)
slovenské ženy = Slovak women (feminine nominative plural)
čeverné autá = red cars (neuter nominative plural) | | Vocabulary | Slovak vocabulary is generally quite removed from English even though both are Indo-European languages.
dva = two
tri = three
štyri = four (it's a distant link - only a linguist can explain how the 'št-' is connected to 'f-' in 'four'.)
päť = five
mlieko = milk
voda = water
brat = brother
sestra = sister
syn = son
žena = woman (cf. English 'queen' - it's a distant cognate)
žíť = to live (cf. English 'quick' - it's a distant cognate)
sníh = snow
ty, vy = you (singular), you (plural) (cf. 'thou', French: 'tu', 'vous', German 'du')
noc = night
hodina = hour (cf. English 'good' - it's a distant cognate)
nos = nose
zajtra = tomorrow
dnes = today
včera = yesterday
There are only a few Hungarian loanwords in Slovak which is somewhat surprising considering the length of time that Slovakians lived under Hungarian rule.
e.g. čižma = boot (cf. Hungarian 'csizma'), gombik = button (cf. Hungarian 'gomb')
Some loanwords come from German:
e.g. ksicht = jawbone, (slang: mug, face) (cf. German 'Gesicht' = face), kšeftár = marketeer (cf. German 'Geschaeft' = business)
Still other loanwords (especially modern ones) come from English
hokej (hockey), basketbal (the sport of basketball), internet | | Spelling | Spelling is quite phonetic. There is devoicing when a voiced consonant (one with a slight 'buzz') is at the end of a word or is immediately before a devoiced consonant (one without a slight 'buzz') This devoicing is not reflected in spelling.
E.g. otázka = question (pronounced 'otaa-ska' since voiced 'z' precedes unvoiced 'k'. Therefore, the 'z' sound turns into the 's' sound)
E.g. hrad = castle (pronounced 'hrat' since voiced 'd' is at the end of the word. Therefore, the 'd' sound turns into the 't' sound)
Slovak uses the Roman alphabet with its own twists for English speakers. The different letters for English speakers are:
á, ä, é, í, ó, ô, ú, ý || č, ď, ĺ, ľ, ň, ŕ, š, ť, ž | | Time needed | According to FSI, it takes approximately 1100 class hours to acheive professional speaking and reading proficiency in Slovak.
Naturally, the time needed will vary on each person's level of motivation, access to material and environment. Given such factors, the time needed to acheive professional speaking and reading proficiency in Slovak can take as little as a year to as many as infinity. ;-) | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles | | | | Ressources | | Books | 1) Colloquial Slovak (James Naughton)
- It comes with two CDs or cassettes and a textbook.
- What I enjoyed about this course was that it had accessible dialogues and useful grammar information. It also comes with exercises for each chapter with answers at the back of the book.
- It would have been desirable if the textbook had included more exercises. You won't retain a lot of information after doing the exercises since the quantity of exercises is inadequate. This kit is better suited for someone who needs to either brush up on his/her Slovak or someone who wishes to get a start in learning Slovak. He/she should continue with his/her study using at least one of the courses listed below.
2) Slovak for You (Ada Böhmerová)
- It comes with two cassettes and a textbook.
- What I enjoyed most about this course was that it has quite a few exercises and that it builds your knowledge gradually. In addition, it's full of useful notes on grammar.
- Like many modern textbooks, it uses the communicative approach and is full of colourful pictures and illustrations. More importantly for someone learning on his or her own, the textbook has no answer key. It's better to use it in a classroom setting since some of the exercises are oral and you will need a teacher or fellow student to help you with exercises where you create your own dialogues.
3) Slovenčina pre cudzincov (Slovak Language for Foreigners) (Tomáš Dratva et al.)
- It comes with three cassettes, a textbook and a workbook
- It is similar to "Slovak for You", but has more exercises.
- Like many modern textbooks, it uses the communicative approach and is full of colourful pictures and illustrations. More importantly for someone learning on his or her own, the textbook has no answer key. It's better to use it in a classroom setting since some of the exercises are oral and you will need a teacher or fellow student to help you with exercises where you create your own dialogues.
4) Beginning Slovak (Sylvia Gálová-Lorinc and Oscar Swan)
- It comes with 8 cassettes and a textbook/workbook. It is also possible to order the tapes or CDs separately from an organization called 'Lektorek' which is affiliated with Professor Swan.
- What I enjoyed about this course was that it had practical and sometimes humourous dialogues accompanied with succint notes on grammar. The textbook also comes with exercises for each chapter. Some of the exercises are oral and consist of repeating what the speaker says. Other exercises have the learner create sentences after hearing an example and hints.
- Compared to Naughton's and Böhmerová's respective books, the Beginning Slovak course covers similar grammatical material but provides many more exercises. If you want a course with a lot of audio and exercises, this is the best that I have been able to obtain. Unfortunately, the book does not come with an answer key. It may be helpful for the learner to ask a Slovak friend or teacher to correct your answers to the exercises.
5) Slovenčina pre cudzincov - Gramatická a pravopisná cvičebnica (Slovak Language for Foreigners - Workbook for Grammar and Orthography) (Ľudmilla Žigová)
- It is a small textbook with fill-in-the blank exercises. It's very inexpensive (76 SKK or approximately $3 Cdn or $2.50 US.) but obtainable only in Slovakia. I was lucky enough to find it during a trip to Slovakia.
- The exercises give drills in the use of proper case endings and conjugations. It also includes an answer key and is very appropriate for those who are learning Slovak on their own and wish to have an inexpensive source of additional exercises.
- This guide is best used one you have gained some knowledge of Slovak grammar. It is entirely in Slovak and is of little use to absolute beginners.
6) Prehl'ad gramatiky a pravopisu slovenského jazyka (Overview of the Grammar and Orthography of the Slovak Language) (Milada Caltíková and Ján Tarábek)
- It is a small textbook with fill-in-the blank exercises and dictation exercises. It's quite inexpensive (167 SKK or approximately $7 Cdn or $5.80 US.) but obtainable only in Slovakia. I was lucky enough to find it during a trip to Slovakia.
- The exercises give drills in the use of proper case endings and conjugations and opportunities for dictation (i.e. you need someone to read the assigned text while you write down what is being read). It also includes an answer key and is very appropriate for those who are learning Slovak on their own and wish to have an inexpensive source of additional exercises. It also includes notes on grammar and tables of verbal conjugations and nominal and adjectival declensions.
- This guide is best used once you understand at least some Slovak and need a very concise reference guide for Slovak grammar. It is entirely in Slovak and is of little use to absolute beginners..
7) A Learner's Dictionary of English (Aliberto Caforio)
- This is a rather small English-Slovak-English dictionary. Most entries contain a few commonly-used translations of phrasal verbs between English and Slovak. It also indicates a noun's gender and whether a verb is perfective or imperfective. This dictionary would be more useful if it would indicate the perfective-imperfective pairs for the verbal entries. For example it's useful that the dictionary indicates 'napisať' as a perfective verb meaning 'to write'. However, the dictionary does not mention that its imperfective counterpart is 'pisať'. As such, a learner will have a problem in finding the correct verb to use in a sentence.
- Avoid foreign booksellers or Amazon if possible as they usually charge a substantial premium on this dictionary (in North America, this dictionary costs about $36 Cdn. or $30 US). Try instead to buy the dictionary in Czech Republic or Slovakia. In Slovakia, this dictionary costs approximately 250 Slovak crowns (roughly $10 Cdn. or $8.50 US).
8) English-Slovak Dictionary (Ján Šimko) (4th printing of 3rd edition. published by SPN or Bolchazy-Carducci)
- This is often regarded as the best English-Slovak dictionary available in spite of its age. The last edition is from 1971 and the latest reprint is from 1991. It is relatively comprehensive and most entries have several examples of its use in Slovak contexts. It also shows the perfective and imperfective counterparts in most of its translation of verbs. For example, under the entry "to read", its first translation of this verb is '(pre)čítať'. As most Slovak learners will know, the form 'prečítať' is perfective while the form 'čítať'. Most imperfective-perfective pairs are shown in this somewhat cryptic way with the use of parantheses. However, after a little practice in using this dictionary, you will have a good idea of which verb is perfective and which one isn't when you consult an entry. While it is far from an ideal way of showing the aspectual pairs of verbs, it is the only English-Slovak dictionary that I know of which even indicates this piece of information in the first place.
- Avoid foreign booksellers or Amazon if possible as they usually charge a substantial premium on this dictionary (in North America, this dictionary costs roughly $72 Cdn. or $60 US). Try instead to buy the dictionary in Czech Republic or Slovakia. However, given its age, it can only be found in old bookshops that sell antiques or rare books.
9) Anglicko-slovenský slovník (s najnovšími výrazmi) (Josef Fronek and Pavel Mokráň) (English-Slovak Dictionary with the Newest Expressions)
- This is a more modern counterpart to Šímko's dictionary. Unfortunately, it doesn't make an explicit indication of which verbs are perfective and which are imperfective. On the other hand, this dictionary is more up-to-date than Šímko's work and its comprehensiveness is very useful.
- Avoid foreign booksellers or Amazon if possible as they usually charge a substantial premium on this dictionary (in North America, this dictionary costs roughly $72 Cdn. or $60 US). Try instead to buy the dictionary in Czech Republic or Slovakia. In Slovakia, this dictionary coses approximately 900 Slovak crowns (roughly $37.50 Cdn. or $31 US)
**Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a useful Slovak-English dictionary. The ones that I have browsed through when visiting Slovak bookshops suffer from the problem of not showing aspectual pairs of verbs (imperfective-perfective) in a useful way. There are many such dictionaries to choose from, but none of them so far has impressed me very much.*** | | | | | Links | A basic profile of Slovak (the source of about half of this profile's material):
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=47&menu=004
A list of learning and reference materials for those who wish to learn Slovak (part of the website mentioned above)
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/index.aspx
The king of all sites for those who want to learn Czech:
http://www.bohemica.com (lots of information, exercises, articles, reviews on learning materials for Czech. More importantly, it has a link to an online Slovak textbook and workbook!)
A very accessible site for anything about Slovakia
http://www.slovakia.org/
A map of Slovak dialects:
http://www.pitt.edu/~armata/dialects.htm
An informative article on the Slovak language giving information about spelling, pronunciation, grammar and dialects at wikipedia.org:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language
For a website on language difficulty for native speakers of English
http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectation s.html
For a wide-ranging site on many aspects of the language (e.g. online course, education, professional organizations, media)
http://seelrc.org/webliography/slovak.ptml
An article from the Slovak spectator about Slovak dialects in general:
http://www.spectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=15487
An article from the Slovak Spectator about the Spiš dialect:
http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok-2904.html
Yet another article from the Slovak Spectator about dialectal variation with the word for 'potato':
http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?vyd=2004013&cl=1567 1
A list of Czech and Slovak composers
http://www.hudba.cx/klasik_e.htm | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles |
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