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Slovak
slovenčina, slovenský jazyk
Spoken in	Slovakia and as a minority language also in the  United States  Czech Republic,  Serbia,  Ireland  United Kingdom  Romania  Poland  Canada,  Hungary  Croatia  Australia  Austria  Ukraine
Region	Central Europe
Native speakers	5.0 million  (2001 census)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Czech-Slovak Slovak
Writing system	Latin (Slovak alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	European Union  Slovakia  Czech Republic[1]  Vojvodina in  Serbia Recognised minority language in:  Ukraine
Regulated by	Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic
Language codes
ISO 639-1	sk
ISO 639-2	slo (B) slk (T)
ISO 639-3	slk
Linguasphere	53-AAA-db < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-dba to 53-AAA-dbs)
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Slovak ( slovenský jazyk (help·info), slovenčina, not to be confused with slovenski jezik or slovenščina, the native name of the Slovene language), is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian).

Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people. There are also Slovak speakers in the United States, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Canada, Hungary, Croatia, The United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, and Ukraine.

Alphabet[link]

Slovak uses a Latin script with small modifications that include the four diacritics (ˇ, ´, ¨, ˆ; see Pronunciation) placed above certain letters.

Orthography[link]

The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle, "Write as you hear". The secondary principle is the morphological principle: forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently. An example of this principle is the assimilation rule (see below). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use of i after certain consonants and of y after other consonants, although both i and y are pronounced the same way. Finally there is the rarely applied grammatical principle, under which, for example, there is a difference in writing (but not in the pronunciation) between the basic singular and plural form of masculine adjectives, for example pekný (nice – sg.) vs pekní (nice – pl.), both pronounced [pekniː].

Most foreign words receive Slovak spelling immediately or after some time. For example, "weekend" is spelled víkend, "software" - softvér, "gay" - gej (both not exclusively), and "quality" is spelled kvalita (possibly from Italian qualità). Personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep their original spelling, unless there is a fully Slovak form for the name (for example Londýn for "London").

The acute mark (in Slovak "dĺžeň", "prolongation mark") indicates a long vowel, for example í = approximately /i:/. This mark may appear on any vowel except "ä" (wide "e", široké "e" in Slovak). It may also appear above the consonants "l" and "r" (which, in such cases, are considered vowels).

The circumflex ("vokáň") exists only above the letter "o". It turns the o into a diphthong (see below).

The umlaut ("prehláska", "dve bodky" = two dots) is only used above the letter "a". It indicates a raised vowel, almost an "e".

The caron (in Slovak "mäkčeň", "palatalization mark" or "softener") indicates either palatalization or a change of alveolar fricatives into post-alveolar, in informal Slovak linguistics often called just "palatalization". Eight consonants can bear a caron. Not all "normal" consonants have a "caroned" counterpart:

• In printed texts, the caron is printed in two forms: (1) č, dž, š, ž, ň and (2) ľ, ď, ť (looking more like an apostrophe), but this is just a convention. In handwritten texts, it always appears in the first form.
• Phonetically, there are two forms of "palatalization": ľ, ň, ď, ť are palatalized consonants, while č, dž, š, ž are postalveolar affricates and fricatives.
• To accelerate writing, a rule has been introduced that the frequent character combinations ňe, ďe, ťe, ľe, ňi, ďi, ťi, ľi, ňí, ďí, ťí, ľí are simply written ne, de, te, le, ni, di, ti, li, ní, dí, tí, lí (that is without the caron). These combinations are usually pronounced as if there were a caron above the consonant. There are exceptions:

1. foreign words (for example telefón is pronounced with a hard t and a hard l)
2. the following words: ten (that), jeden (one), vtedy (then), teraz (now)
3. nominative masculine plural endings of pronouns and adjectives do not "soften" preceding n, d, t, l (for example tí odvážni mladí muži /tiː odvaːʒni mladiː muʒi/, the/those brave young men)
4. short e in adjectival endings, which is derived from long é shortened by the "rhythmical rule" (see below), does not "soften" preceding n, d, t, l (for example krásne stromy /kraːsnɛ.../, beautiful trees, c.f. zelené stromy /zɛlʲɛnɛː.../, green trees)

• ľ is nowadays pronounced by many speakers, particularly from western Slovakia, as a non-palatalized l. In standard Slovak, li and le are never palatalized; such palatalized pronunciation of li and le is already a marked pronunciation (of a middle and eastern dialects, or a sign of hypercorrectness). However, palatalizing li and le is officially prescribed in literary Slovak and non-palatalized pronunciation is considered incorrect.

In addition, the following rules hold:

1. When a voiced consonant having a voiceless correspondent (that is b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž) stands at the end of the word before a pause, it is pronounced as a voiceless consonant (that is p, t, ť, c, č, k, ch, s, š, respectively), for example pohyb is pronounced /pohip/, prípad is pronounced /priːpat/
2. When "v" stands at the end of the syllable, it is pronounced as non-syllabic u (bilabial approximant /u̯/), with the exception of the position before "n" or "ň", for example, kov /kou̯/ (metal), kravský /krau̯skiː/ (cow - adjective), but povstať /pofstatʲ/ (uprise) because the v is not at the end of the syllable (po-vstať), hlavný /hlavniː/ because "v" stands before "n" here
3. The assimilation rule: Consonant clusters containing both voiced and voiceless elements are entirely voiced if the last consonant is a voiced one, or voiceless if the last consonant is voiceless. For example, otázka is pronounced /otaːska/, vzchopiť sa is pronounced /fsxopitsːa/. This rule applies also over the word boundary, for example prísť domov /priːzdʲ domou̯/ (to come home), viac jahôd /vi̯adzjahu̯ot/ (more strawberries). The voiced counterpart of "ch" /x/ is /ɣ/.
4. The rhythmical rule: A long syllable (that is, a syllable containing á, é, í, ý, ó, ú, ŕ, ĺ, ia, ie, iu, ô) cannot be followed by another long syllable in the same word. This rule has morphonemic implications (for example žen-ám but tráv-am) and conjugation (for example nos-ím but súd-im). There are several exceptions to this rule. It is typical of the literary Slovak language, and does not appear in Czech, or in some Slovak dialects.

One of the most important changes in Slovak orthography in the 20th century was in 1953 when s began to be written as z where pronounced [z] in prefixes, for example smluva into zmluva, sväz into zväz. (That is, the phonemic principle has been given priority over the etymological principle in this case.)

Along with English, Slovak is one of the few languages to feature heterophonic homographs, the most common examples being krásne /ˈkraːsne/ (beautiful) vs. krásne /ˈkraːsɲe/ (beautifully).

Official transcriptions[link]

Slovak linguists do not usually use IPA for phonetic transcription of their own language or others, but have their own system based on the Slovak alphabet. Many English language textbooks make use of this alternative system of 'phonetic' transcription, a factor which probably contributes to some Slovaks developing a particular ('incorrect') pronunciation of certain English phonemes. In the following table, pronunciation of each grapheme is given in this system as well as in the IPA.

Some additional notes (transcriptions in IPA unless otherwise stated):

• Pronunciation of ä as [æ] is already archaic (or dialectical) but still considered correct by some authorities; the other standard pronunciation today is [ɛ].
• r and l can be syllabic /r̩/ and /l̩/ and behave as vowels. When they are used in this manner, they may be written with the acute accent (ŕ and ĺ). e.g., vlk (wolf), prst (finger), štvrť (quarter), krk (neck), bisyllabic vĺča—vĺ-ča (wolfling), vŕba—vŕ-ba (willow-tree), etc.
• ch, normally the unvoiced [x].
• The graphic group -ou (at the end of words) is pronounced [ɔu̯] but is not considered a separate diphthong. Its phonemic interpretation is /ov/.
• ia, ie, iu form diphthongs /i̯a/ /i̯e/ /i̯u/ in native Slovak words, but two monophthongs in foreign and loan words.
• m has the allophone [ɱ] in front of the labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/.
• n in front of (post)alveolar fricatives has an allophone written as /n̠/ in Slovak phonemic transcription.
• n can be [ŋ] in front of the velar plosives /k/ and /ɡ/.

Phonology[link]

This section requires expansion.

In the standard language, the stress is always on the first syllable of a word (or on the preceding preposition, see below). This is not the case in certain dialects. The eastern dialects, for example, have penultimate stress, which at times makes them difficult for speakers of Standard Slovak to understand. Some of the north-central dialects have a weak stress on the first syllable, which becomes stronger and "moves" to the penultimate in certain cases. Monosyllabic conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of the verb byť (to be) are, as a rule, not stressed.

Prepositions form a single prosodic unit with the following word, unless the word is long (four syllables or more) or the preposition stands at the beginning of a sentence.

Syntax[link]

The main features of Slovak syntax are:

• The verb (predicate) agrees in person and number with its subject. For example:

Speváčka spieva. (The+female+singer is+singing.)

(Speváčk-a spieva-0, where -0 is a third person singular ending)

Speváčky spievajú. (Female+singers are+singing.)

(Speváčk-y spieva-j-ú; -ú is a third person plural ending, and /j/ is a hiatus sound)

My speváčky spievame. (We the+female+singers are+singing.)

(My speváčk-y spieva-me, where -me is the first person plural ending)

and so forth.

• Adjectives, pronouns and numerals agree in person, gender and case with the noun to which they refer.
• Adjectives precedes their noun. Botanic or zoological terms are exceptions (for example, mačka divá, literally "cat wild", Felis silvestris), as is the naming of Holy Spirit (Duch Svätý) in a majority of churches.

Word order in Slovak is relatively free, since strong inflection enables the identification of thematic roles (subject, object, predicate, etc.) regardless of word placement. This relatively free word order allows the use of word order to convey topic and emphasis.

Examples:

Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára obchod. = That big man opens a store there today. (ten = that; veľký = big; muž = man; tam = there; dnes = today; otvára = opens; obchod = store) - The word order is does not emphasize any specific detail, just general information.

Ten veľký muž dnes otvára obchod tam. = That big man is today opening a store there. - This word order emphasizes the place (tam = there).

Dnes tam otvára obchod ten veľký muž. = Today over there a store is being opened by that big man. - This word order focuses on the person who is opening the store (ten = that; veľký = big; muž = man).

Obchod tam dnes otvára ten veľký muž. = The store over there is today being opened by that big man. - Depending on the pronunciation the focus can be either on the store itself or on the person.

The unmarked order is Subject-Verb-Object. Nevertheless, word order is not completely free. In the above example, the following combinations are not possible:

Ten otvára veľký muž tam dnes obchod.

Obchod muž tam ten veľký dnes otvára. ...

And the following are not correct:

Otvára ten veľký muž tam dnes obchod? (Correct is Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára obchod? or Ten veľký muž dnes otvára obchod tam? or Tam dnes otvára obchod ten veľký muž?)

Obchod ten veľký muž dnes tam otvára. (Only possible in a poem or a similar style.)

Morphology[link]

Articles[link]

There are no articles in the Slovak language. The demonstrative pronoun ten (fem: tá, neuter: to) may be used in front of the noun in situations where definiteness must be indicated.

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns[link]

This section requires expansion.

Numerals[link]

There are unique forms for 0-10. 11-19 are formed by the numeral plus "násť." Compound numerals (21, 1054) are combinations of these words formed in the same order as their mathematical symbol is written (for example 21 = dvadsaťjeden, literally "twenty one")).

The numerals are: (1) jeden (jedno (neuter), jedna (feminine)), (2) dva (dve (neuter, feminine)), (3) tri, (4) štyri, (5) päť, (6) šesť, (7) sedem, (8) osem, (9) deväť, (10) desať, (11) jedenásť, (12) dvanásť, (13) trinásť, (14) štrnásť, (15) pätnásť, (16) šestnásť, (17) sedemnásť, (18) osemnásť, (19) devätnásť, (20) dvadsať, (21) dvadsaťjeden,... (30) tridsať, (31) tridsaťjeden,... (40) štyridsať,... (50) päťdesiat,... (60) šesťdesiat,... (70) sedemdesiat,... (80) osemdesiat,... (90) deväťdesiat,... (100) sto, (101) stojeden,... (200) dvesto,... (300) tristo,... (900)deväťsto,... (1,000) tisíc,... (1,100) tisícsto,... (2,000) dvetisíc,... (100,000) stotisíc,... (200,000) dvestotisíc,... (1,000,000) milión,... (1,000,000,000) miliarda,...

Counted nouns have two forms: their most common form is in plural genitive (päť domov = five houses or stodva žien = one hundred two women), while the plural form of the noun when counting the amount of 2, 3, 4 is in nominative, which is the form as without counting (dva domy = two houses or dve ženy = two women).

Verbs[link]

• Verbs have three major conjugations. Three persons and two numbers (singular and plural) are distinguished. There are several conjugation paradigms.
• á-Type Verbs

• á-Type Verbs - rhythmic law

• á-Type Verbs - soft stem

• í-Type Verbs

• í-Type Verbs - rhythmic law

• ie-Type Verbs

• e-Type Verbs -ovať

• e-Type Verbs - (typically -Cnuť)

• ie-Type Verbs - (typically -Vnuť)

• ie-Type Verbs - -cť, -sť, -zť

• ie-Type Verbs - -nieť

• Irregular Verbs

• Subject personal pronouns are omitted unless they are emphatic.

• Non-continuous time is indicated with a perfective verb and the continuous version with an imperfective verb which is formed on the perfective stem. These are considered separate lexemes. Example: :to hide = skryť, to be hiding = skrývať

• Historically, there were two past tenses. Both are formed analytically. One of these is not used in the modern language, being considered dated and/or grammatically incorrect. Examples for two related verbs:

skryť (to hide) : skryl som (I hid / I have hidden); bol som skryl (I had hidden)

skrývať (to be hiding): skrýval som (I was hiding); bol som skrýval (I had been hiding)

• There is one future tense. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is identical with the present tense. Examples:

skryť (to hide) : skryjem (I will hide / I will have hidden)

skrývať (to be hiding) : budem skrývať (I will be hiding)

• There are two conditional forms. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:

skryť (to hide) : skryl by som (I would hide), bol by som skryl (I would have hidden)

skrývať (to be hiding) : skrýval by som (I would be hiding), bol by som skrýval (I would have been hiding)

• The passive voice is formed either as in English (to be + past participle) or using the reflexive pronoun 'sa':

skryť (to hide): je skrytý (he is hidden); sa skryje (he is hidden)

skrývať (to be hiding): je skrývaný (he is being hidden); sa skrýva (he is being hidden)

• The active present participle (=which is ...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úci/ -iaci / - aci

skryť (to hide) : skryjúci

skrývať (to be hiding): skrývajúci

• The transgressive (=by/when ...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úc / -uc / –iac/-ac

skryť (to hide): skryjúc

skrývať (to be hiding): skrývajúc

• The active past participle (= which was ...ing) was formerly formed using the suffix –vší, but is no longer used.

• The passive participle (= ...ed (adj.)) is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:

skryť (to hide): skrytý (hid)

skrývať (to be hiding): skrývaný (being hidden)

• The 'verbal noun' (= the ...ing) is formed using the suffix –ie:

skryť (to hide): skrytie (the hiding)

skrývať (to be hiding): skrývanie (the continuous hiding)

Adverbs[link]

Adverbs are formed by replacing the adjectival ending with the ending –o or –e/-y. Sometimes both –o and -e are possible. Examples:

vysoký (high) – vysoko (highly)

pekný (nice) – pekne (nicely)

priateľský (friendly) – priateľsky (in a friendly manner)

rýchly (fast) – rýchlo / rýchle (quickly)

The comparative/superlative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjectival ending with a comparative/superlative ending -(ej)ší or –(ej)šie. Examples:

rýchly (fast) – rýchlejší (faster) – najrýchlejší (fastest): rýchlo (quickly) – rýchlejšie (more quickly) – najrýchlejšie (most quickly)

Prepositions[link]

Each preposition is associated with one or more grammatical cases. The noun governed by a preposition must appear in the case required by the preposition in the given context. Example:

from friends = od priateľov

Priateľov is the genitive case of priatelia. It must appear in this case because the preposition od (=from) always calls for its objects to be in the genitive.

throughout the square = po námestí (locative case)

past the square = po námestie (accusative case)

Po has a different meaning depending on the case of its governed noun.

History[link]

Relationships to other languages[link]

The Slovak language is a descendant of Proto-Slavic language, itself a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is closely related to the other West Slavic languages, primarily to Czech, but it also has some striking similarities with other Slavic languages, primarily the Southern Slavic languages and Old Church Slavonic. It has been also influenced by German, English, Latin and Hungarian.

Czech[link]

Most dialects of Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible (see Differences between Slovak and Czech languages). Eastern Slovak dialects are less intelligible with Czech; they differ from Czech and from other Slovak dialects, and mutual contact between speakers of Czech and speakers of the eastern dialects is limited.

Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia it has been allowed to use Czech in TV broadcasting and - like any other language of the world - during court proceedings (Administration Procedure Act 99/1963 Zb.). From 1999 to August 2009, the Minority Language Act 184/1999 Z.z., in its section (§) 6, contained the variously interpreted unclear provision saying that "When applying this act, it holds that the use of the Czech language fulfills the requirement of fundamental intelligibility with the state language" ; the state language is Slovak and the Minority Language Act basically refers to municipalities with more than 20% ethnic minority population (there are no such Czech municipalities in Slovakia). Since 1 September 2009 (due to an amendment to the State Language Act 270/1995 Z.z.) a language "fundamentally intelligible with the state language" (i.e. the Czech language) may be used in contact with state offices and bodies by its native speakers and documents written in it and issued by bodies in the Czech Republic are officially accepted. Regardless of its official status, Czech is used commonly both in Slovak mass media and in daily communication by Czech natives as an equal language.

Czech and Slovak have a long history of interaction and mutual influence well before the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Literary Slovak shares significant orthographic features with Czech, as well as technical and professional terminology dating from the Czechoslovak period, but there are phonetic, grammatical and vocabulary differences.

Other Slavic languages[link]

Slavic language varieties tend to be closely related, and have had a large degree of mutual influence, due to the complicated ethnopolitical history of their historic ranges. This is reflected in the many features Slovak shares with neighboring language varieties. Standard Slovak shares high degrees of mutual intelligibility with many Slavic varieties. Despite this closeness to other Slavic varieties, there is significant variation among Slovak dialects. In particular, eastern varieties differ significantly from the standard language, which is based on central and western varieties.

Eastern Slovak dialects have the greatest degree of mutual intelligibility with Rusyn of all the Slovak dialects, but both lack technical terminology and upper register expressions. Polish and Sorbian also differ quite considerably from Czech and Slovak in upper registers, but non-technical and lower register speech is readily intelligible. There is also some mutual intelligibility with spoken Rusyn, Ukrainian and even Russian (in this order), although their orthography, based on the Cyrillic script, is very different.

There are also similarities with the western Southern Slavic languages, i.e. Serbo-Croatian language and to a lesser degree Slovenian stemming from the time before the arrival of the Hungarians in Central Europe.

Note: Jak sja maješ? in Ukraine is often considered to be a Polonized version of greeting. In proper Ukrainian grammar it would have been something like Jak maješ-sja?

Latin[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

English[link]

This section requires expansion.

weekend - víkend, football - futbal, ham & eggs - hemendex, offside - ofsajd, out (football) - aut, body check (hockey) - bodyček, couch - gauč

German[link]

This section requires expansion.

German loanwords include "coins," Slovak mince, German münzen; "to wish", Slovak vinšovať (colloquial, standard term: želať), German wünschen; and "color," Slovak farba, German Farbe.^[5]

Hungarian[link]

Hungarians and Slovaks have had a language interaction ever since the settlement of Hungarians in the Carpathian area. Hungarians adopted many words from various Slavic languages related to agriculture and administration, and there are also a number of Hungarian loanwords in Slovak. Examples include:

• "wicker whip": Slovak korbáč (the standard name for "whip" is bič and korbáč , itself originating from Turkish kırbaç, usually means only 1 particular type of it—the "wicker whip") – Hungarian korbács;
• "dragon/kite": Slovak šarkan (rather rare, drak is far more common in this meaning; šarkan often means only "kite", esp. a small one that is flown for fun and this term is far more common than drak in this meaning; for the "dragon kite", the term drak is still used almost exclusively) – Hungarian sárkány.^[6]
• "rumour": Slovak chýr – Hungarian hír;
• "encumbrance": Slovak ťarcha – Hungarian teher;
• "camel": Slovak ťava – Hungarian teve;
• "ditch": Slovak jarok – Hungarian árok;

Romanian[link]

Romanian words entered the Slovak language in the course of the so-called "Wallachian colonization" in the 14th-16th century when sheep breeding became common in Slovak mountains. Many of today's Slovak rustic-pastoral words like bača ("shepherd"; Rmn. baci), valach ("young shepherd"; cf. the dated exonym for Romanians, "Valach"), magura ("hill"; Rmn. măgura), koliba("chalet"; Rmn. coliba), bryndza (a variety of sheep cheese; Rmn. brânză), striga ("witch", "demon"; Rmn. "strigă/strigoi"), etc. were introduced into the Slovak language by Romanian shepherds during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times. The Romanian influence is most strongly felt in the dialects of the Moravian Wallachia region.

Dialects[link]

Official usage of Slovak language in Vojvodina, Serbia

There are many varieties of Slovak. These may be divided in four basic groups:

• Eastern Slovak dialects (in Spiš, Šariš, Zemplín and Abov)
• Central Slovak dialects (in Liptov, Orava, Turiec, Tekov, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer and the historic Zvolen county)
• Western Slovak dialects (in remaining Slovakia: Kysuce, Trenčín, Trnava, Nitra, Záhorie)
• Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak dialects (outside Slovakia in the Pannonian Plain in Serbian Vojvodina, and in southeastern Hungary, western Romania, and the Croatian part of Syrmia)

The fourth group of dialects is often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western Slovak dialects (see e.g. Štolc, 1968), but it is currently undergoing changes due to contact with surrounding languages (Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian) and long-time geographical separation from Slovakia (see the studies in Zborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov, e.g. Dudok, 1993).

For an external map of the three groups in Slovakia see here.

The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary and inflection. Syntactic differences are minor. Central Slovak forms the basis of the present-day standard language. Not all dialects are fully mutually intelligible. It may be difficult for an inhabitant of the Slovak capital Bratislava (in western Slovakia) to understand a dialect from eastern Slovakia.

The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges. The first three groups already existed in the 10th century. All of them are spoken by the Slovaks outside Slovakia (USA, Canada, Croatian Slavonia, and elsewhere) and Central and Western dialects form the basis of the Lowland dialects (see above).

The western dialects contain features common with the Moravian dialects in the Czech Republic, the southern central dialects contain a few features common with South Slavic languages, and the eastern dialects a few features common with Polish and the East Slavonic languages (cf. Štolc, 1994). Lowland dialects share some words and areal features with the languages surrounding them (Serbian, Hungarian and Romanian).

See also[link]

• Slovak declension
• List of language regulators for a list of other languages with regulated official form of the language.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Dudok, D. (1993) Vznik a charakter slovenských nárečí v juhoslovanskej Vojvodine [The emergence and character of the Slovak dialects in Yugoslav Vojvodina]. Zborník spolku vojvodinských slovakistov 15. Nový Sad: Spolok vojvodinských slovakistov, pp. 19–29.
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (3): 373–378 
• Musilová, K. and Sokolová, M. (2004) Funkčnost česko-slovenských kontaktových jevů v současnosti [The functionality of Czech-Slovak contact phenomena in the present-time]. In Fiala, J. and Machala, L. (eds.) Studia Moravica I (AUPO, Facultas Philosophica Moravica 1). Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, pp. 133–146.
• Nábělková, M. (2003) Súčasné kontexty slovensko-českej a česko-slovenskej medzijazykovosti [Contemporary contexts of the Slovak-Czech and Czech-Slovak interlinguality]. In Pospíšil, I. – Zelenka, M. (eds.) Česko-slovenské vztahy v slovanských a středoevropských souvislostech (meziliterárnost a areál). Brno: ÚS FF MU, pp. 89–122.
• Nábělková, M. (2006) V čom bližšie, v čom ďalej... Spisovná slovenčina vo vzťahu k spisovnej češtine a k obecnej češtine [In what closer, in what further... Standard Slovak in relation to Standard Czech and Common Czech]. In Gladkova, H. and Cvrček, V. (eds.) Sociální aspekty spisovných jazyků slovanských. Praha: Euroslavica, pp. 93–106.
• Nábělková, M. (2007) Closely related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, "Czechoslovak". International Journal of the Sociology of Language 183, pp. 53–73.
• Nábělková, M. (2008) Slovenčina a čeština v kontakte: Pokračovanie príbehu. [Slovak and Czech in Contact: Continuation of the Story]. Bratislava/Praha: Veda/Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy. 364 pp., ISBN 978-80-224-1060-1
• Sloboda, M. (2004) Slovensko-česká (semi)komunikace a vzájemná (ne)srozumitelnost [Slovak-Czech (semi)communication and the mutual (un)intelligibility]. Čeština doma a ve světě XII, No. 3–4, pp. 208–220.
• Sokolová, M. (1995) České kontaktové javy v slovenčine [Czech contact phenomena in Slovak]. In Ondrejovič, S. and Šimková, M. (eds.) Sociolingvistické aspekty výskumu súčasnej slovenčiny (Sociolinguistica Slovaca 1). Bratislava: Veda, pp. 188–206.
• Štolc, Jozef (1968) Reč Slovákov v Juhoslávii I.: Zvuková a gramatická stavba [The speech of the Slovaks in Yugoslavia: phonological and grammatical structure]. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
• Štolc, Jozef (1994) Slovenská dialektológia [Slovak dialectology]. Ed. I. Ripka. Bratislava: Veda.

External links[link]

Slovak language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Slovak language

• Slovak language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Slovak National Corpus
• English-Slovak / Slovak-English Dictionary
• Slovake.eu - Online Language Course
• Basic Slovak Phrasebook
• E-Slovak - Online Language Course
• Slovak Monolingual Dictionaries
• Slovak Language Lessons for Beginners
• Overview of Slovak Grammar
• Introduction to the Slovak Alphabet
• Online Translation Dictionary
• Basic Slovak Travel Vocabulary
• Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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Peter Sagan

Sagan on the podium after the second stage of the 2010 Tour de Romandie
Personal information
Full name	Peter Sagan
Nickname	Terminator
Born	(1990-01-26) January 26, 1990 (age 22) Žilina, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	73 kg (160 lb)[1]
Team information
Current team	Liquigas-Cannondale
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder / Sprinter
Amateur team(s)
2009	Dukla Trenčín Merida
Professional team(s)
2010–	Liquigas-Doimo
Major wins
Vuelta a España 3 Stages Paris-Nice Points classification (2010) 2 Stages Tour de Romandie 1 Stage Tour de Suisse Points classification (2011) 2 Stages Tour of California Points classification (2010, 2011, 2012) Youth classification (2010) 8 Stages Giro di Sardegna General classification (2011) Points classification (2011) 3 Stages Tour de Pologne General classification (2011) Points classification (2011) 2 Stages
Infobox last updated on 20 May 2012

Peter Sagan (born January 26, 1990 in Žilina) is a Slovak professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Liquigas-Cannondale. Sagan had a successful junior mountain bike racing career, winning the Junior World Championship in 2008, before moving to road racing.

At the age of 22 Sagan is considered to be one of cycling's most promising talents,^[2] having won two stages at Paris–Nice, one at the Tour de Romandie, two and the overall classification at the Tour de Pologne, a record eight at the Tour of California,^[3] two at the Tour de Suisse, three at the Vuelta a España as well as the overall classification and three stages of the Giro di Sardegna.

Personal life[link]

Sagan is the youngest child among three brothers and a sister. He was brought up by his sister as his parents spent most of the day taking care of a small grocery shop they own in his hometown. His brother Juraj Sagan is a cyclist with Liquigas-Cannondale.

Early years[link]

Sagan started to ride bikes at the age of nine when he joined Cyklistický spolok Žilina, a small local club in his home town. Throughout his junior age Sagan rode both mountain bikes and road bikes, and was well known for his unconventional style to ride in tennis shoes and t-shirts, drinking just pure water. Sagan drew a significant attention when he appeared at the Slovak Cup with a bicycle borrowed off his sister after he had mistakenly sold his own and the one from Velosprint sponsor was delayed. Riding the supermarket bike with poor brakes and limited gear, he won the race.^[4]

Professional beginnings[link]

Sagan got his first taste of professional cycling when he was hired by the Dukla Trenčín Mérida team, a Slovak outfit in the Continental Pro (second) division. In 2008, he won the Junior World Championship on the mountain bike in Vale di Sole. That same year, he also finished second at Cyclocross Junior World Championships in Treviso and the Junior Paris–Roubaix.^[5]

Sagan joined a Pro Tour team Quick Step for road testing but he failed to get a contract. His frustration was so deep that he decided to quit road cycling, however pressed by his family he gave it a try to Liquigas-Doimo and succeeded. Liquigas' Zanatta offered Sagan a two-year contract (2010–2011) with an option to ride mountain bikes for Cannondale. The contract has been prolonged until 2012 in April 2010. Liquigas doctors and managers were stunned by results of Sagan's medical tests saying they have never ever seen a rider of 19 years of age so physically strong and capable as Sagan. During the training camp Sagan destroyed more mountain bikes than any other rider due to his ability to put a bike through its paces. His team mates started to call him Terminator despite his quiet and very polite personality.

2010[link]

Liquigas nominated Sagan for his first Pro Tour road race Tour Down Under in January 2010 at the age of 19. He was involved in a crash during the second stage but kept riding with 17 stitches on his arm and left thigh. In the queen stage to Willunga he joined an attack over the last climb with Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde and Luis León Sánchez. The four fought to hold off the sprinters' group over the next 20 kilometers, with Sánchez taking the win.^[6]

Sagan won his first and second Pro Tour stages during the 2010 Paris–Nice road race. Sagan was not initially nominated for the race, but joined the team after his team mate Maciej Bodnar broke his collarbone.^[7] His first stage win was gained on 10 March 2010, when Sagan joined a move initiated by Nicolas Roche on the final climb of the third stage into Aurillac and out-sprinted Roche and Joaquim Rodríguez for the stage win. This stage win also gave Sagan the lead in the "Green Jersey" or Points Classification.^[8] Sagan's second Pro Tour win came two days later from a solo attack in the fifth stage into Aix-en-Provence. Attacking three kilometers from the finish up a sharp climb, Sagan was able to hold off the Peloton to claim the win.^[9] Alongside his two stage wins, Sagan also finished second in stage two at Limoges and third in stage six into Tourrettes-sur-Loup. The combination of high stage placings and intermediate sprint points won Sagan the Green Jersey for 2010. He finished the race 17th, three minutes and twenty one seconds behind race winner Alberto Contador, who praised the young Slovak and predicted he would be a rival to watch in future races. He also finished eighth in the "White Jersey" or Young Riders Classification.^[10]

Sagan wearing the green jersey at the 2010 Tour of California.

At the 2010 Tour of California, Sagan won the 5th and the 6th stage, coming in with the GC contenders each time. After missing the move up Bonny Doon on stage 3, he was 17 seconds back. The two stage wins that he took not only moved him into 3rd on GC but also put him into the points jersey. Going into the 7th Stage Time Trial through Los Angeles, he was only 9 seconds back. Even though he had prior success in Prologues, this Time Trial was slightly too long, and he lost 1 minute and 35 seconds on GC going into the final stage. Even though he was dropped out of the select GC group on the last lap of the 20.4 miles (32.8 km) circuit, he secured both the Youth Competition and the Points Jersey. He ended up 8th in the overall, behind seasoned veterans like Levi Leipheimer, Michael Rogers, David Zabriskie, Chris Horner, and Jens Voigt, all people very highly respected in the European peloton. Sagan finished fourth in the opening prologue of the 2010 Tour de Suisse, only three seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, but finished almost 11 minutes down in the second stage and didn't take the start the following day alleging severe fatigue.^[11]

After taking a break during the month of July, he returned to good form later in the season, securing high placings in a number of European races as well as 2nd place in the inaugural Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. He rode the World Championships in Geelong, Australia for Slovakia, but failed to make an impact in the long race. He planned to ride several late season races including Paris-Tours and the Giro di Lombardia but an intestinal issue forced him out of the former and weakened him in the latter.^[12]

2011[link]

Sagan was set to continue in 2011 with the same team, now renamed Liquigas-Cannondale. At a team training camp in December 2010, Sagan said that his first goal for the 2011 season would be Milan San Remo.^[13]

After beginning his season with some solid placings in a couple of Italian one-day races, Sagan really got his season going at the Giro di Sardegna. He won 3 of the 5 stages in the race, and won both the overall and the points classification, narrowly hanging on to beat Jose Serpa by 3 seconds in the general classification.

During the Tour of California, he won stage 5 on his way to a win in the points classification for the second straight year at this event.

Sagan finished fifth in the Tour of Flanders.

In June he took part in the Tour de Suisse starting off with an impressive 3rd place in the opening prologue. He then won a mountain stage 3, proving his versatility, when he caught Damiano Cunego on the descent of Grosse Scheidegg and then outsprinted him in the dash to the finish line. Sagan managed two other podium placings in the flat stages with an uphill sprint finish before winning stage 8 in another bunch sprint. This victory was enough to secure another points jersey for the young Slovak rider.

Sagan targeted the Vuelta a España to be the stage for his first Grand Tour appearance. He rode Tour de Pologne as a preparation for the Vuelta. He took the leader's jersey after winning stage 4 and then he also won stage 5. Although he lost the jersey to Daniel Martin after a difficult finish of stage 6, he managed to regain it on the final day of the race thanks to bonus seconds for intermediate sprint and a second place on the stage. He also claimed the points classification.

2012[link]

Early of 2012 Sagan unofficially announced prolongation of his contract with Liquigas till 2014. In the contract, signed prior Vuelta a España, Sagan exchanged better financial benefits for a possibility to have his brother Juraj on the team. "For me, Liquigas was the first choice. I had offers from other teams, giving me perhaps more freedom in the peloton. But Liquigas introduced me to the professional cycling, they have put trust in me and I would like to pay back," commented Sagan for 53x11, a Czech cycling monthly.

He began the season in good form, winning a stage and the points classification in the Tour of Oman. Sagan won Stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico and also played a key role in helping Vincenzo Nibali win the event overall. Sagan's good form continued into the classics season, with fourth place in Milan-San Remo, second in Gent-Wevelgem, a stage victory in Three Days of De Panne and fifth in the Tour of Flanders.

Tour of California[link]

On the first stage of the Tour of California, Sagan had a puncture with 7 kilometers to go. He worked his way back to the bunch and avoided a crash that occurred with 3 kilometers left in the race. His team-mate Daniel Oss piloted him in the last few kilometers, and Sagan out sprinted his rivals, taking the stage win.^[15] The very next day, he won again on stage 2, in Santa Cruz. After suffering a crash in the Empire Grade climb, he got back on and his team dragged him to the last corner of the race, a right bend with the finish line only a couple hundred meters away. Sagan was first out of the corner and accelerated to the finish, taking his second victory in a row.^[16] On the third stage, Sagan took his third consecutive victory by a very slim margin over Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) for the third time in a row.^[17] He would go on to win again on the fourth stage in a bunch finish.^[18]

After the dust settled on the Tour, Sagan had five stage wins, including the eight and final stage in Los Angeles and the points jersey, shattering the previous record of Tour of California stage wins with a cumulative of eight stages, the previous mark being detained by Levi Leipheimer of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad with six. He was also awarded for his performance with the sprinter's jersey.^[19][20]

Major results[link]

Monuments results[link]

This table shows Peter Sagan's results in the five cycling monuments.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Peter Sagan

• Official website
• Profile at Liquigas official website