Slovakian
Slovakian
(Slovak) is the
official language of Slovakia, spoken by slightly fewer than 5 million people in
Slovakia, and by about half a million people outside the country, primarily in
the United States and Canada. Slovak belongs to the West Slavic branch of the
Slavic languages. It is divided into three dialect areas: west, central, and
east. Slovak is written in the Latin alphabet with diacritics (accent
marks), and it is most closely related to the Czech language, under the cultural
influence of which it has developed through most of its history. Slovak has
preserved many of the basic Slavic word roots and sounds of Common Slavic, the
original language from which all the Slavic languages descended. Slovak
developed as a national language in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
prompted by a rise in the Slovak people's awareness of their national identity
and the accompanying need for education and literacy.
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