Slovak

is spoken by approximately six million residents in Slovakia and Vojvodina, an autonomous district in northern Serbia. It is the official language in Slovakia and Vojvodina. It belongs to the group of West Slavic languages and is related to Czech and Polish.

Origin and history

Slovak is derived from the Proto-Slavic language. The language of the Western Slavs began to distinguish from Proto-Slavic in the 10th century. The merger of the Duchy of Nitrzan with the Duchy of Moravia in 833 and the establishment of the Great Moravian State were of great importance for this process. At the request of the ruler Rastislav, Emperor Michael III sent two missionaries from Byzantium, Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius, to Great Moravia in 863. Their task was to develop the principles of a Slavonic language in order to accompany church liturgy and to spread Christianity. Based on the Greek minusculus, Constantine created the first Slavonic script Glagolitic and translated the Holy Scriptures into Old Church Slavonic language. Pope Hadrian II approved the use of this script as a liturgical language. Constantine also wrote Proglas, the first literary work in Old Church Slavonic language. The fall of the Great Moravian Empire marked the beginning of the formation of the Czech and Slovak nations. These nations consider themselves heirs to the tradition of the Great Moravian State.

Latin was the official language in the early feudal Hungarian state established in a territory of Great Moravia. From the 13th century onwards, German settlers came to the area of today's Slovakia and the influence of the Czech language is also present, which since the 15th century has became the official language of the privileged classes. Slovak existed only in dialects. In the period from the 16th to the 18th century the first attempts at the formation of a literary language appeared. The first Slovak novel 'René Mláďenca Príhodi a Skúsenosťi', was written in 1783 by Jozef Ignác Bajza. The national consciousness of Slovak nation grows with the advent of the Enlightenment and its reforms. In the history of the Slovak language, we distinguish the following periods: Bernolak's (1787 - 1845), Štúr's (1846 - 1852), Reformist (1852-1863), Martínian (struggle against Hungarian influences) (1863 - 1918), Interwar period (1918-1940) and Contemporary period.

First attempts at codification

The first attempt to codify the Slovak literary language on the basis of the West Slovak dialect was made by Anton Bernolák, who also compiled the rules of grammar and orthography. A version of the Slovak language in Bernolák codification was in use for about 50 years. In the 19th century, Ľudovít Štúr codified the Slovak literary language based on its Central Slovak variant.

Martinian Period

In 1863, the Slovak Mother Institution was established in Martin, which became the centre of Slovak social and cultural life. During this period, Hungarian and German influences were being fought against. Slovak literature flourished. Among the best-known writers of this period are Svetozár Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916), Pavel Országh Hviezdoslav (1849-1921), Martin Kukučín (1860-1928), Božena Slančíková-Timrava (1867-1951) and Jozef Gregor Tajovský (1874-1940). The scientific reform of the language system was carried out by Samo Czambel (1856-1909).

Interwar Period 1918-1939

The establishment of the Czechoslovak state in 1918 marked another important stage in the development of the Slovak language. By virtue of the Constitution, Slovak became the official language alongside the Czech language. It was used mainly in the Slovak lands in schools and offices. The Comenius University was founded, where the language of instruction was Slovak. During this period, there was a tendency to adopt Czech words and phrases without adapting them to the Slovak language. This was explained by the so-called theory of Czechoslovakism, i.e. the existence of one nation and one Czechoslovak language. This doctrine was fought against by Slovak purists who believed that the Slovak vocabulary should be free from Bohemisms and Germanisms. The most famous writers of this period of so-called lyrical prose are Dobroslav Chrobák (1907-1951), František Švantner (1912-1950), Margita Figuli (1909-1995) and Ľudo Ondrejov (1901-1962).

Contemporary Period

In the 1950s, many new terminological names appeared in the vocabulary of the Slovak language. Emphasising the distinctiveness of the Slovak language was considered nationalistic at the time, and the tendency towards a Czech-Slovak rapprochement re-emerged. In response to these tendencies, at the end of the 1960s, the Theses on the Slovak Language formulated a theory about the distinctiveness of the Slovak literary language. The Federation Act of 1968 confirmed the equality of the Slovak and Czech languages in all spheres of life.