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Language Information

Slovak is the offical language of Slovakia, spoken by about 90 percent of the country's 5 million inhabitants. It is similar to that of Czech to be considered by some as merely a dialect, but the existence of slightly different alphabets, as well as distinct literatures, makes it more convenient to look upon them as separate languages.

The Slovak alphabet is similar to that of Czech, though it lacks three Czech letters (c; r; and u) and contains three of its own. Two are vowels—the â , as in mâso (meat), and the ô , as in nôz (knife), while the l' indicates a soft 1 sound (e.g., ucitel'— teacher). The Slovak word for Slovak is slovensky', not to be confused with the word for Slovenian, slovinsky'.

Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Slavic
Branch: Western

Writing Sample

Translation

The smaller the fry, the bigger the noise. A small brat that cannot say a single word will outscream the whole family, a minor clerk will make more ado than a dozen ministers, a small sparrow will outtwitter its own grandfather hopping about peacefully on the pavement, and a small farm wagon will disturb the whole village with its rattling and creaking while a forty-horsepower vehicle streaks past and you hear only a slight swish.

JANKO JESEN5KY, The Democrats