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Slovak phrasebook Travel Guide


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The Slovak Language is the main and national language of Slovakia and is spoken widely in and also universally understood in the Czech Republic. It is a Slavic language closely related to Russian, Polish, Czech, etc. Slovak is very similar to Czech in many ways; in fact, many travelers unfamiliar with the language often assume incorrectly that Czech and Slovak are dialects of each other.

Pronunciation

Slovak is written as it sounds and is easier as difficult as it looks. It may help to remember that Slovak makes use of certain diacritical marks. The most common are ´, which lengthens a vowel (it does not imply stress in Slovak), and ˇ, which softens a consonant. Palatisation is occasionally used in Czech but is more widely used in Slovak.

Stress

Like Czech, stress in Slovak usually falls on the first syllable , but try not to exaggerate it as it would be in English or in German.

Short Vowels

a�
like 'a' in "amigo" [ah]
ä�
like 'a' in "fat" [a] at times it gives out a 'e' sound in "egg" [eh]
e�
like 'e' in "bet" [eh]
i�
like 'i' in "it" [ih]
o�
like 'o' in "sport" [oh]
u�
like 'oo' in "book" [oo]
y�
like 'i' in "wick" [ih] a short 'i' sound

Long Vowels

á�
like 'a' in "far" ( long a sound ) [aa]
é�
like 'é' in "bled" ( long e sound ) [ehh]
í�
like 'ee' in "see" ( long i sound ) [ee]
ó�
like 'oo' in "door" ( long o sound ) [ohh]
ú�
like 'u' in "flute" ( long u sound ) [oo]
ý�
like 'ee' in "weep" ( long y sound ) [ee]

Consonants

b�
like 'b' in "baby"
c�
like 'ts' in "bets"
č�
like 'ch' in "church"
d�
like 'd' in "day"
ď�
like 'dge' in "edge" [more of a 'j' sound in 'judge']
DZ
like 'ds' in "roads"
like 'j' in "juice"
f�
like 'f' in "fine"
g�
like 'g' in "game" ( hard g sound )
h�
like 'h' in "hot", regardless of its position in the word
CH
hard aspirated sound like the 'ch' in "loch"
j�
like 'y' in "yes"
k�
like 'k' in "kick"
l�
like 'l' in "luck"
ĺ�
( hold this l a little longer ); seldom used [similar to the 'll' in "call"]
ľ�
like the 'ly' in "halyard"
m�
like 'm' in "moon"
n�
like 'n' in "nine"
ň�
like 'ny' in "canyon"
ô�
like 'wa' in "want"
p�
like 'p' in "paper"
q�
like 'q' in "quest"
r�
like spanish 'r' in "rico" ( slightly trilled )
ŕ�
like spanish 'rr' in "carro" ( longer trilled )
s�
like 's' in "son"
š�
like 'sh' in "fish"
t�
like 't' in "hot"
ť�
like 'tu' in "tune" [end of words gives off a palatal 'tch' sound in "snitch"]
v�
like 'v' in "van"
w�
like 'v' in "vest" [only used in foreign words]
x�
like 'ks' in "bricks"
z�
like 'z' in "zero"
ž�
like 'su' in "pleasure"

Common diphthongs

au�
like the 'ow' in "cow"
ia�
like 'ia' in "piano"
ie�
like 'ea' in "fear"
iu�
like 'ew' in "new"
ô �
like 'wo' in "woke"

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Slovak phrasebook Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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