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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 1 of 7 24 August 2005 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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INTRODUCTION
Slovak (Slovenčina) is a Slavonic language spoken by approximately 6 million people worldwide. Slovak is closely related to Czech, slightly less so to Polish and Sorbian and even less so to the other Slavonic languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and Bulgarian. It is the official language of Slovakia 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 intelligibility 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 Slovaks 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 occurring 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, Slovaks are distinct and their language is not as well-known to Westerners. Many Slovaks 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. 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 - Source) TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES 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, skiers 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 worth a visit for its impressiveness and it is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.) COUNTRIES Slovakia (official), spoken by Slovak immigrants and ethnic Slovaks 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 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 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 Slovaks to use a form of Czech 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 dialects from what is now western Slovakia. Two more major attempts at standardization were made in the 19th century. The second attempt was led by Ján Kollár and historian Pavol Šafárik whose version of literary Slovak combined elements of Czech dialects with these Western Slovak dialects. However it was the third attempt by the scholar and politician Ľudovít Štúr which had a lasting effect. Štúr's version of literary Slovak was based on the Central Slovak dialects and drew negligibly on Czech dialects (or even other Slovak dialects for that matter). This standard gained favour amongst many of the more nationalist Slovak writers and poets and gradually supplanted the other versions of literary Slovak. Consequently modern standard Slovak is not a derivative or dialect of Czech despite the high mutual intelligibility between standard Czech and Slovak. Literary expression began primarily as texts on religious themes from the Dark Ages and were often written in Latin, Old Czech or presumably Old Czech with debatable Slovak influence. By the 18th century Slovak literature began to be more distinguishable by being an expression of Slovak national consciousness or Pan-Slavism even though it still relied heavily on Czech or the ultimately failed standardized language by Bernolák (see above). It was not until the establishment of Czechoslovakia did Slovak literature begin establishing itself as a vigorous movement exploring themes with a more restricted Slovak view and using the distinctly Slovak standard devised by Štúr (see above). Some writers of modern Slovak literature include Milo Urban, Jozef Cíger-Hronský, Margita Figuli, Ľubomír Feldek and Milan Rúfus. 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. More modern representatives of Slovak musical life include the rock bands Elán and Desmod, the metal band Majster Kat, the pop singer Marika Gombitová and the now-inactive pop band "Banket". In very recent times the Slovak version of "American Idol" ("Slovensko hľadá SuperStar" - Slovakia is looking for a superstar) has given a start to some Slovak pop singers such as Katarína Koščová, Zdenka Predná and Martina Šindlerová. Slovak cinema is not very-well known and is sometimes overshadowed in external perception by the cinema of the neighbouring Czech Republic. This overshadowing is partially explicable that Czech and Slovak cooperation was routine during the era of Czechoslovakia and many Slovak actors and directors did their work with Czech directors or put on films in Czech. In other aspects cinematic output from Slovaks or on Slovak settings has been rather limited partially because of political interference from first the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and later the Slovak nationalist government of Vladimír Mečiar and partially because of a lack of funds available for film-making. Nevertheless Slovak films can offer a useful and entertaining diversion for students of Slovak with notable examples being "Jánošík" by Jaroslav Siakeľ, "Obchod na korze" jointly directed by the Slovak Jew Ján Kadár and Moravian Elmar Klos, "Ružové sny" by Dušan Hanák and "Všetko čo mám rád" by Martin Šulík. DIFFICULTIES 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 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) 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 ('cudzí' is 'soft', and the accusative feminine form of 'cudzí' is different from the comparable form of 'hard' adjectives) vs. Mám zelené knihu = I have a green book.('zelený' is 'hard' and the accusative feminine plural form of 'zelená' is 'zelené') In spite of this, Slovak pronunciation is rather simple despite the intimidating appearance 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 has what is called the 'rhythmic law' meaning that long syllables cannot be adjacent to each other (there are some exceptions to the law). This law applies to conjugations of verbs and adjectival declension as well. 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) žiť = to live (cf. English 'quick' - it's a distant cognate) sneh = 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 Slovaks 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), kšeft (colloquial / pejorative) = market, shop, deal (cf. German 'Geschäft' = business) Still other loanwords (especially modern ones) come from English hokej (hockey), basketbal (the sport of basketball), internet TRANSPARENCY / INTELLIGIBILITY TO PEOPLE KNOWING OTHER LANGUAGES Most English-speaking learners will find little in Slovak that is instantly familiar at the outset apart from most of the Slovak alphabet and the occasional internationalism (e.g. hotel, mobilný telefón, polícia). Slovak is intelligible in varying degrees to native speakers of other Slavonic languages without courses or special training with this "untrained intelligibility" highest when one knows Czech. Here are some hints that may help with making sense of Slovak for people speaking at least one Slavonic language other than Slovak. 1) ô usually corresponds to Czech ů e.g. Môžeš prísť zajtra? (Slovak); Můžeš přijít zítra? (Czech) "Are you able to come tomorrow?" Vôbec neviem (Slovak); Vůbec nevím (Czech) "I don't know at all" 2) -V at the end of words or syllables tends to be pronounced like English 'w' as in Belorussian, Slovenian, Sorbian and Ukrainian. E.g. bez štuedentov (Slovak - pronounced like "bez shtoodentow"); без студэнтаў (Belorussian - pronounced like "bez stoodentaw"); brez študentov (Slovenian - pronounced like "brez shtoodentow"); без студентpів (Ukrainian - pronounced like "bez stoodentiw") "without the students" (Cf. bez studentów (Polish - pronounced like "bez stoodentoof); без студентов (Russian - pronounced like "bez stoodentoff) 3) The second palatalization of velars (i.e. g, h, ch and k) of Slavonic has been partially reversed in Slovak as in Russian and Slovenian. A manifestation of this reversal applies to the dative or locative singular endings of e or i (j) occuring after a velar. Here the velar often doesn't change as it would in other Slavonic languages. e.g. na nohe (Slovak - from noha); на ноге (Russian - from ногa) "on the leg"; na noge (Slovenian - from noga) (Cf. на назе (Belorussian - from нага); na noze (Czech - from noha); na nozi (BCMS/SC - from noga); na nodze (Polish - from noga); на нозi (Ukrainian - from ногa)) 4) The ending -m is the only ending for 1st person singular for all verbs in present tense as in Macedonian and Slovenian. "I go / want / buy / carry / write / know" idem / chcem / kupujem / nesiem / píšem / znám (Slovak) идам / сакам / купувам / донесам / пишувам / знам (Macedonian) grem / hočem / kupujem / nesem / pišem / znam (Slovenian) versus... іду / хачу / купляю / нясу / пішу / знаю (Belorussian) idem / hoću / kupujem / donesem / pišem / znam (BCMS / Serbo-Croatian) ида / искам / купувам / донеса / пиша / зная (Bulgarian) jdu / chci (chcu) / kupuji (kupuju) / nesu / píšu / znám (Czech) idę / chcę / kupuję / niosę / piszę / znam (Polish) иду / хочу / покупаю / несу / пишу / знаю (Russian) іду / хочу / купую / несу / пишу / знаю (Ukrainian) 5) The Late-Common Slavonic cluster of *-tj- evolved into -c- as in Czech and Polish. e.g. *světja > svíce (Czech); świeca (Polish); svieca (Slovak) "candle" (cf. sv(ij)eća (BCMS/SC); свеча (Russian)) 6) Stress falls regularly on the first syllable as in Czech and Sorbian. 7) Slovak vowels can be long or short as in Czech, Slovenian and BCMS/SC. 8) Like Polish, Slovak uses "virile numbers" for 2 to 4 in nominative. Other Slavonic languages use regular cardinal numbers or collective ones instead. Two/Three/Four men are in the bank. Dvaja/Traja/Štyria muži sú v banke. (Slovak) Dwaj/Trzej/Czterej mężczyźni są w banku. (Polish) (Cf. Dvojica/Trojica/Četvorica muškaraca su u banci (BCMS / Serbo-Croatian); Двамата/Трима/Четирима мъже са в банката (Bulgarian); Dva/Tři/Čtyři muži jsou v bance. (Czech); Двое/Трое/Четверо мужчин - в банке (Russian)) 9) As in Belorussian, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian, the Slovak accusative plural endings for adjectives and nouns denoting masculine humans are the same as those for the genitive plural. e.g. "I see new [male] students" Ja vidím nových študentov (Slovak) Ja widzę nowych studentów (Polish) Я бачу новых студэнтаў (Belorussian) Я вижу новых студентов (Russian) Я бачу нових студентів (Ukrainian) versus... Ja vidim nove studente (BCMS/SC) Aз виждам нови студенти (Bulgarian) Ja vidím nové studenty (Czech) Jac гледам нови студенти (Macedonian) Jaz vidim nove študente (Slovenian) 10) Today's standard Slovak is the result of a codification based on dialects spoken around Martin and Banská Bystrica (center of modern-day Slovakia). These central dialects are striking for their degree of similarity to Southern Slavonic languages (especially BCMS/Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) and this has meant that standard Slovak is often easier for people of the former Yugoslavia to understand at first glance than Slovak's otherwise closer relations in Czech, Polish or Sorbian. In addition to the similarities in 2), 4) and 7) above, the following features (sometimes called "Yugoslavisms") in Slovak may be familiar to speakers of Southern Slavonic languages a) The locative singular ending in masculine or neuter is -om as in BCMS/Serbo-Croatian. e.g. "We were talking about the new/old apartment." Hovorili sme o novom/starom byte. (Slovak) Govorili smo o novom/starom stanu. (BCMS/SC) b) The sequence of initial *ôl- or *ôr- as reconstructed for Proto-Slavonic evolved regularly to la- or ra- in Southern Slavonic and very frequently so in Slovak. e.g. *ôlkъtь (Proto-Slavonic); lakat (BCMS/SC); лакът (Bulgarian); лакoт (Macedonian); lakeť (Slovak); laket (Slovenian) "elbow" (Cf. loket (Czech); локоть (Russian)) c) Slovak verbs of motion on their own do not explictly indicate whether the motion is with a vehicle or not like in Southern Slavonic languages but unlike in Eastern Slavonic languages and closely kindred Western Slavonic languages. e.g. idem (BCMS/SC, Slovak); grem (Slovenian); ида (Bulgarian); идам (Macedonian) "I go [on foot]" (Cf. idę (Polish); іду (Belorussian, Ukrainian); jdu (Czech); иду (Russian)) idem autobusom (BCMS/SC, Slovak); grem z avtobusom (Slovenian); ида с автобус (Bulgarian); идам со автобус (Macedonian) "I go via/by bus" (jadę autobusem (Polish); еду аўтобусам (Belorussian); jedu autobusem (Czech); еду автобусом (Russian); ïду автобусом (Ukrainian)) Scroll down to the sections on transparency / intelligibility for speakers of other languages in the profiles for BCMS / Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovenian and Ukrainian for related information on the subject. 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, ľ, ĺ, ň, ŕ, š, ť, ž TIME NEEDED According to FSI, it takes approximately 1100 class hours to achieve 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 achieve professional speaking and reading proficiency in Slovak can take as little as a year to as many as infinity. ;-) BOOKS Comenius University has released a list of books recommended for those preparing to take language proficiency exams graded to A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. I have used a few of the books in its list and offer my reviews of them below.
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. - It costs roughly $40 US on Amazon. 2) Slovak for You (4th ed.) (Ada Böhmerová) - This course for beginners comes with a textbook, workbook and 2 CDs. - 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. - It may be difficult to find on Amazon at a reasonable price (including Amazon Marketplace) but the entire set can be bought in Slovakia for about 40 Euros. 3) Slovenčina pre cudzincov (Slovak Language for Foreigners) (Tomáš Dratva et al.) - This course for beginners comes with three cassettes/CDs, 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. - It may be difficult to find on Amazon at a reasonable price (including Amazon Marketplace) but the entire set can be bought in Slovakia for about 50 Euros. 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 succinct 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, "Beginning Slovak" 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 find. 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 answers to the exercises. - The domain holding Prof. Swan's Polish learning material also has the audio for the textbook in .aiff (i.e. Apple's counterpart to the .wav format). See "Links" for the URL. 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 $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) Prehľad 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 $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.. 7a) Slovenčina ako cudzí jazyk - A - Hovorme spolu po slovensky! (Angela Zebegneyová, Anna Puzderová, Beáta Baková) 7b) Slovenčina ako cudzí jazyk - B - Hovorme spolu po slovensky! (Alica Bortlíková, Eva Maierová, Jana Navrátilová) - These kits are part of the Slovak courses for foreigners given at Comenius University in Bratislava. - Set "A" consists of a textbook, workbook and 3 CDs and is meant for beginners (corresponding to A1 and A2 on CEFR scale). - Set "B" consists of a textbook, workbook, reference manual of grammar and 2 CDs and is meant for more advanced students (corresponding to B1 and B2 on CEFR scale). - Set "C" is not available but is presumably under development and would be for students at an even higher level (corresponding to C1 and C2 on CEFR scale). - In general these kits are designed similarly to the aforementioned "Slovak for You" by Böhmerová and "Slovenčina pre cudzincov" by Drátva et al. Namely these courses use the communicative approach and are full of colourful pictures and illustrations. More importantly for someone learning on his or her own, the books do not have an answer key. It's better to use them 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. - The biggest advantage of these offerings over comparable courses is that they come in versions for beginners and non-beginners alike and the more advanced set ("B" and potentially "C") could be a godsend for more advanced students who have become frustrated by the scarcity of substantial structured learning materials of Slovak for anyone other than beginners. - These courses are currently unknown on Amazon but can be bought in Slovakia or from Slovak mail-order firms such as panorama.sk. Each kit costs roughly 55 Euros. 8) 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 $30 US). Try instead to buy the dictionary in Czech Republic or Slovakia. In Slovakia, this dictionary costs approximately 250 Slovak crowns (roughly $8.50 US). 9) 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 $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. 10) 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 $60 US). Try instead to buy the dictionary in Czech Republic or Slovakia. In Slovakia, this dictionary costs approximately 900 Slovak crowns (roughly $31 US) 11) Anglicko-slovenský / Slovensko-anglický veľký slovník (Lingea) - This is the large English-Slovak/Slovak-English dictionary from of a series of dictionaries by the Czech publisher Lingea. - It contains 102,000 headwords with about 400,000 translations and 80,000 examples and idioms among the headwords spread out on 1,520 pages. - The biggest drawback of this dictionary is that it does not give hints about the inflectional endings for the entries. - Nevertheless I strongly recommended this large dictionary for a serious student of Slovak and there are also editions of this large dictionary using French or German as the second language (a Spanish version is in preparation). This dictionary also comes on CD-ROM if the hardcover version would not be to students' taste. - This dictionary costs about 45 Euros. 12a) Anglicko-slovenský/Slovensko-anglický praktický slovník (Lingea) 12b) Anglicko-slovenský/Slovensko-anglický šikovný slovník (Lingea) 12c) Anglicko-slovenský/Slovensko-anglický vreckový slovník (Lingea) - These are progressively smaller versions of Lingea's large English-Slovak/Slovak-English dictionary in 11). - "Praktický slovník" ("Practical dictionary") has about 70,000 headwords and 220,000 translations and costs about 20 Euros. - "Šikovný slovník" ("Handy dictionary") has about 34,000 headwords and 66,000 translations and costs about 9 Euros. - "Vreckový slovník" ("Pocket dictionary") has about 35,000 headwords, 42,000 translations and costs about 9 Euros. - If one doesn't want to spend on the large dictionary, then the practical dictionary (12a)) would be the second-best choice as it doesn't excessively sacrifice coverage for better portability and lower price. The other dictionaries (i.e. 12b) and 12c)) give only the barest coverage and are probably not worth consideration for a serious student as they're only marginally better than free online English-Slovak/Slovak-English dictionaries). 13) Wazzup? Slovník slangu a hovorovej angličtiny (Lingea) - This is a handy and at times entertaining dictionary of English colloquialisms and vulgarities for Slovak users. Unfortunately I have not seen a comparable dictionary that translates Slovak slang or vulgarities into English but it should still be useful for English-speakers if for example they'd like to know how to call someone a "douchebag" in Slovak. ;-) - It contains idiomatic translations for roughly 10,000 colloquial or vulgar expressions from most varieties of English (including Australian and South African) but is dominated by such expressions or words from American or British English. - It costs about 10 Euros. 14) Slovník slovenského jazyka (edited by Stefan Pečiar et al.) - This is a large monolingual explanatory dictionary of Slovak that should be useful for more advanced students who would like to get hints about the inflection for Slovak words. - It comes in 6 volumes and despite its age (published from 1959 to 1968) is an excellent resource for students of Slovak as it gives hints about inflection and often plenty of example sentences for every entry. In addition it is the only Slovak dictionary that I know of that gives explicit indication of the aspectual counterpart for every verb. - It is out of print and is now most often found in research libraries at universities. However it sometimes appears in the inventory of shops that deal in used books. The prevailing price is unknown but it can add up to several hundred dollars. - However this dictionary under the abbreviation "SSJ" is available for free in an online database at slovniky.juls.savba.sk/ N.B. This old explanatory dictionary is currently being superseded by "Slovník súčasného slovenského jazyka" (Dictionary of the Contemporary Slovak Language). This new dictionary will also consist of several volumes but the last volume is estimated to be released by around 2020. So far only the first volume (for words starting with A to G) has been released. 15) Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka (4th ed.) - This is a monolingual explanatory dictionary of Slovak that should be useful for more advanced students who would like to get hints about the inflection for Slovak words. - It is a condensed version of the large explanatory dictionary in 14). - Each entry is presented with hints about its inflection and example sentences. However unlike that large dictionary, verbs listed in this condensed dictionary are not often shown with their aspectual counterpart. - It costs about 35 Euros and is obtainable in Slovakia or from Slovak mail-order firms. - This dictionary also goes by the abbreviation "KSSJ" and is usable online for free at slovnik.juls.savba.sk/ SCHOOLS There are courses for foreigners who want to learn Slovak in Slovakia. Most such courses are given in the capital, Bratislava but there are also options often from private firms or tutors in larger cities such as Košice and Žilina. A couple examples of Slovak courses for foreigners include Slovak "summer school" at Comenius University and all-year as well as intensive courses during the summer at International House Bratislava. University of Pittsburgh, John Carroll University (Ohio) and the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies in London offer courses in Slovak outside Slovakia. LINKS Discussions, posts or logs on HTLAL involving Slovak: - Chung at work / Chung pri práci - Czech and Slovak - Help learning Slovak - Slavic Language Family Learning Sequence - Slovak: Finally I'm sticking to it - Slovak or Esperanto? - Ungrateful natives - Verbal aspect as applied to Slovak Comparison of Czech and Slovak using dialogues in “Colloquial Czech” and “Colloquial Slovak” as presented in the log “Chung at work / Chung pri práci” (notable points of differentiation are in parentheses with lexical differences including false friends being too numerous to list below) — Unit 1, Dialogues 1/1 (declension of 1st person singular) — Unit 1, Dialogues 4/3 (conjugation in present tense 1, "soft" declension for feminine nouns) — Unit 1, Dialogues 5/4 (declension of certain neuter nouns) — Unit 4, Dialogues 1/1 (conjugation in present tense 2, declension of feminine nouns in dative/locative singular) — Unit 4, Dialogues 2/2 (declension of rok "year") — Unit 4, Dialogues 3/3 (Slovak rhythmic law) — Unit 4, Dialogues 4/4 (declension of feminine possessive adjective for 3rd person singular) — Unit 4, Dialogues 5/5 (declension of possessive adjective for 1st person singular and feminine personal pronoun for 3rd person singular ) — Unit 4, Dialogues 6/6 (Slovak pre corresponding to Czech pře- or pro-) — Unit 7, Dialogues 1/1 (asymmetric correspondence between Czech ů and Slovak ô) — Unit 7, Dialogues 2/2 (l-participle from verbs ending in -st/-zt / –sť/–zť, instrumental singular for "soft" feminine nouns) — Unit 7, Dialogues 3/3 — Unit 7, Dialogues 4/4 (Czech přes and Slovak cez forming a mutually exclusive pair, conjugation of "to go" and "to take") — Unit 7, Dialogues 5/5 (declension of "this") — Unit 7, Dialogues 6/6 — Unit 10, Dialogues 3/3 (formation of imperative, declension of "these, those", declension of numerals 2, 3, 4, plural of masculine animate nouns, declension of nouns ending in -ctvo/-stvo) — Unit 10, Dialogues 4/4 (nominative/accusative plural of neuter nouns, declension of "soft" adjectives, conjugation of verbs with infinitive -nout / -núť) — Unit 15, Dialogues 1/1 (conditional mood, 2nd person singular in past tense of reflexive verbs) — Unit 15, Dialogues 2/2 (declension of 1st person singular possessive adjective with masculine animate object, declension of "all; everybody; everything") — Unit 15, Dialogues 3/3 (possessor suffixes, accusative of 3rd person singular personal pronoun in masculine and neuter, kinship terms) — Unit 15, Dialogues 4/4 (comparative and superlative) — Unit 15, Dialogues 5/5 and concluding remarks (dates, ordinal numerals, personal age) Other forums - Unilang's discussion forum for Slovak General collections of links - A wide-ranging site on many aspects of the language (e.g. online course, education, professional organizations, media) - A very accessible site for anything about Slovakia General treatment and descriptions of Slovak's learning difficulty - Wikipedia's article on the Slovak language. - A basic profile of Slovak - A website on language difficulty for native speakers of English Dictionaries and other databases - Comprehensive database of Slovak dictionaries (monolingual) - Lingea's online dictionaries from 24 languages into Slovak with entries showing meanings, idiomatic translations and example sentences Online courses/instructional videos, downloadable textbooks or lists of available course titles - Audio for "Beginning Slovak" as .aiff files. - Online course for beginners with audio, videos, notes on basic grammar and exercises - Online course for beginners supported by Comenius University that requires free registration - Online course for Finnish-speakers supported by the University of Jyväskylä - Slovak in Slovakia from Langmedia at the Five Colleges Center for the Study of World Languages - Online publications from the Linguistic Institute of Ľudoviť Štúr including an old but comprehensive manual in Slovak about Slovak morphology. - A list of learning and reference materials for those who wish to learn Slovak - Useful site with links to learning materials, schools and a forum for learners of Slovak Literature and authentic texts - James Naughton's links to Czech and Slovak literature - Online collection of Slovak literary texts sorted by author. - Online anthology of texts in Slovak by authors from Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia Information on dialects - A map of Slovak dialects: - An article from the Slovak Spectator about Slovak dialects in general: - An article from the Slovak Spectator about the Spiš dialect: - Yet another article from the Slovak Spectator about dialectal variation with the word for 'potato'. Bookstores/publishers dealing in Slovak or have material of interest to learners of Slovak Bay Foreign Language Books Ltd. Czech Books.com (It carries Slovak inventory too) Eurobooks.sk Lingea (publisher of dictionaries) Martinus.sk (Similar to Amazon.com but in Slovak) Schoenhof's Foreign Books Slovak Import Company Slovakia Document Store Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo (Slovak Pedagogical Publishing House) Downloadable/streamed media - List of radio stations and television stations in Slovakia (most webpages of stations have content that is playable as a stream). Edited by Chung on 30 December 2014 at 12:57am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7374 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 7 24 August 2005 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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That is some profile! Thank you Chung, I will work on it and revert with questions.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 7 25 August 2005 at 7:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Administrator. I merely used my earlier Czech profile as a base, and made it applicable to Slovak.
What do you mean that you will 'revert with questions'? I thought that these 'Collaborative Writing' profiles would eventually be transferred to the 'Profile' section of the website. Regards Chung 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7186 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 4 of 7 05 September 2005 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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FX, is this profile almost ready to be published?
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 7 15 November 2010 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even though FX has already published this profile, I have updated it anyway with new links and more information on culture and learning resources. It would be great if this version would replace the old one.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 7 30 May 2012 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just a small note to the culture/evolution part. It is no wonder Slovak doesn't have many
Hungarian loanwords. The Hungarian pression to extinct Slovak was much harder than the Austrian approach to Czech (which was more like "let it die out naturally, they don't need it. And just poor people speak it anyways."). Czechs "just" had to reestablish the view of Czech being a language worthy of being spoken by anyone, a language capable of expressing anything from poetry to science. It wasn't easy. But Slovaks had to push Hungarian back from much larger space. Hungarians were quite successfully spreading their language even to the villages... briefly, it makes a lot of sense that there are few Hungarian loanwords. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 7 of 7 30 May 2012 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I gather that this strong Hungarian pressure was only relevant in the 19th century during Magyarization and the rise of European nationalism. If the Hungarian pressure had been that strong lasting more than the 19th century, then Slovak could have become extinct by the 19th century (cf. Polabian faded into oblivion surrounded by German by the 18th century) or been reduced to a vulnerable status such as the Sorbian languages. As it is, the pressure of Magyarization was met by resistance from the newly-formed Slovak consciousness complete with standard Slovak language and desire for more autonomy or even independence.
In addition, the Hungarians' approach to Slovak or its predecessors was actually quite similar to the Austrian one on Czech for much of the Hungarian period (again, it got worse in the 19th century). That is to say the Hungarian overlords basically didn't care much about what the Slavic peasants' language was and figured that it would fade away on its own since they used Hungarian (or German later) while the language of administration and religion was Latin. There was also the extra complication that starting from the Renaissance, some Slavonic scholars from northern Hungary (basically ancestors of the Slovaks) studied in Prague and adopted early modern Czech as their "prestige" language since it was a lot more similar to their native dialect(s) than Early Modern High German, Latin and Early Modern Hungarian. You probably remember that some early Slovak nationalists wrote in Czech as there was no "Slovak" standard nor were many of them motivated enough to devise a standard language that could be characterized as typical of the newly imagined community of Slovaks (that had to wait for Štúr since Bernolák's earlier attempt failed partially because of religious complications, and partially because it was not considered distinct enough from Moravian dialects or Bohemian (Czech)). The lack of Hungarian loanwords in Slovak is partially the result of the standardization processes which tended to be puristic or generally Slavonic-friendly, and partially because much of what was typical of indigenous Hungarian culture didn't get adopted by the Hungarians' subjects. For example the ancient Hungarians vocabulary for agriculture contained several dozen items from a Turkic language but there was little pressure for these kinds of words to be adopted by the Slavonic subordinates since the latter were already an agricultural people with much of the required lexicon. If anything, about 20% of the Hungarian lexicon's roots (including those in agriculture) can be traced to Slavonic sources. This distribution also hints at the nature in which the Hungarian rulers and their subjects interacted. Basically it wasn't the happiest relationship but the ancient Hungarians and ancestors of the Slovaks didn't seem to interact to the point whereby they assimilated each other to the point of someone's language disappearing. If that had been so, Hungarian could have become a footnote in the history books while Slovak would never have come into existence. For comparison, when the Bulgars who are probably related to the Chuvash people (Turkic) came into the Balkans in the Dark Ages, they obviously interacted with their subjects in a way whereby by the end of the Dark Ages, these originally Turkic people were assimilated into the Slavonic subjects, speaking only "Old Bulgarian/"Old Macedonian" and converted to Orthodoxy. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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