How does Slovakian sound to you?

[rashka]

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Vote for all languages it sounds closest to!

[Magyar the Conqueror]

Like a Hungarian trying to speak Czech.

[Sikeliot]

Like Czech.

[rashka]

Obviously it is like Czech but what about the other slavic languages?


Speakers of Czech and Slovak usually understand both languages in their written and spoken form, thus constituting a pluricentric language, though some dialects or heavily accented speech in either language might present difficulties to speakers of the other (in particular, Czech speakers may find Eastern Slovak dialects difficult to comprehend). Younger generations of Czechs living after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 (therefore generally less familiar with Slovak) might also have some problems with a certain number of words and expressions which differ considerably in the two languages, and with false-friends. Nevertheless, these differences do not impede mutual intelligibility significantly.
Linguistically, the Czech and Slovak languages form a language continuum, eastern Slovak dialects then blend into the Rusyn language. Czech exists in two forms (excluding the four Moravian and two Silesian dialects): literary Czech and colloquial Czech. The standard Slovak language is closer to literary Czech, especially in phonology and morphology.

[mymy]

In my opinion, sound more like Serbian than like Russian. Voice system, accents...

Hm, but from all options, i think i would choose Slovenian.

[Lithewa]

This video is in Czech :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjMYm5lSOaI&feature=player_embedded

If anyone is interested in the Slovak language and its sound, listen to these two videos :

L-w8S-w0WkM

xbp-VAntwYA

Hmm I'm not sure whether you can see the videos or something is wrong with it.

[Scrapple]

This video is in Czech :

qjMYm5lSOaI

If anyone is interested in the Slovak language and its sound, listen to these two videos :

L-w8S-w0WkM

xbp-VAntwYA

Hmm I'm not sure whether you can see the videos or something is wrong with it.


To show you tube it should look like this xbp-VAntwYA without the spaces.

[Scrapple]

Sounds similar to Polish and other Central Europe Slavic languages.

[Stegura]

Hmm I'm not sure whether you can see the videos or something is wrong with it.

L-w8S-w0WkM

xbp-VAntwYA

Fixed, just remove the url links

[Harmonia]

Sounds like a mix of Polish and Czech languages.

[LastLivonian]

Like a Hungarian trying to speak Czech.

This is interesting.
Has Hungarian rule left any impact on the Slovak language?

[Lithewa]

Thank you guys for your advice :)


This is interesting.
Has Hungarian rule left any impact on the Slovak language?

As a native speaker I can say it hasn't :) However, why should it, Latin was the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary most of time (till the 19th century) and Magyar together with German were official languages in the end of the 19th century only few decades. By the way, Slovakized Czech was used in the 15th century as a official language together with Latin.

[Europa]

To be honest I can't really tell the difference between Chech and Slovakian,but my grand mother's brother imigrated to Chechoslovakia back in 1945 and I still have some cousins there that I've never seen.Anyways,every time he was back in Bulgaria to visit his sister he spoke with his familly and to my untrained ears the language sounded like Polish.Is Slovakian simillar to Chech?

[LastLivonian]

To be honest I can't really tell the difference between Chech and Slovakian,but my grand mother's brother imigrated to Chechoslovakia back in 1945 and I still have some cousins there that I've never seen.Anyways,every time he was back in Bulgaria to visit his sister he spoke with his familly and to my untrained ears the language sounded like Polish.Is Slovakian simillar to Chech?

I heard that Slovak is an artificial language spoken by artificial Hungarians in denial.

[Lithewa]

To be honest I can't really tell the difference between Chech and Slovakian,but my grand mother's brother imigrated to Chechoslovakia back in 1945 and I still have some cousins there that I've never seen.Anyways,every time he was back in Bulgaria to visit his sister he spoke with his familly and to my untrained ears the language sounded like Polish.Is Slovakian simillar to Chech?

Well, from the linguistic point of view Slovakian is more similar to Polish than to Czech (excluding Moravian dialects). The reason of better understanding between Czechs and Slovaks is obviously in two former Czecho-Slovak states (TV, songs, discussions etc), so people got used to those languages. If there wasn't any Czecho-Slovakia, we wouldn't understand each other well. Now the Czech youth has serious problems with understanding Slovak and I must admit that last time I had to concentrate more when a Czech was talking to me. As for Poles, I can communicate with them in Slovak and they understand me (though not that well as Czechs or Moravians).

Btw. Slovak language is considered to be a kind of a Slavic esperanto. It is recommended to Slavicists to learn it. And it has more than 30 dialects. :)

[Europa]

Well, from the linguistic point of view Slovakian is more similar to Polish than to Czech (excluding Moravian dialects). The reason of better understanding between Czechs and Slovaks is obviously in two former Czecho-Slovak states (TV, songs, discussions etc), so people got used to those languages. If there wasn't any Czecho-Slovakia, we wouldn't understand each other well. Now the Czech youth has serious problems with understanding Slovak and I must admit that last time I had to concentrate more when a Czech was talking to me. As for Poles, I can communicate with them in Slovak and they understand me (though not that well as Czechs or Moravians).

Btw. Slovak language is considered to be a kind of a Slavic esperanto. It is recommended to Slavicists to learn it. And it has more than 30 dialects. :)

Thanks for the info:thumb001:

[Harmonia]

Slovakian is similar to Czech and Polish for obvious reasons, but I wonder how similar is Slovakian to Slovenian. Could Slovak understand general meaning of spoken Slovenian?

[Mordid]

Sound like Czech with Polish influence in it and very cool sound. :)

[Lithewa]

Could Slovak understand general meaning of spoken Slovenian?

Not really. I'd have to get used to spoken Slovenian to understand it well, but it wouldn't be easy. When I read an article in Slovenian, I understand it as a whole, but still so many words are unknown or unrecognizable for me.

Standard Slovenian is too influenced by Serbo-Croatian, but there are those Slovenian dialects which are similar to Czech/Moravian/Slovak. They might be an evidence of Carantania, the early middle-age Slavic/Slovenian state that was Western Slavic in fact.

[Cail]

Well, spoken Slovak was instantly intelligible to me (Polish and Belarussian speaker), while Czech was not (that was long ago, before i started learning in in the university). That says something.

[Yaroslav]

Polish, Carpathian dialects of Russian (or Ukrainian if you insist), and other (Czech).

[Phil75231]

To westerners unstudied in any Slavic tongue....

ALL Slavic languages sound Russian :D

[Yaroslav]

To westerners unstudied in any Slavic tongue....

ALL Slavic languages sound Russian :D

Here in US when I speak Ukrainian they ask me if I am speaking Arabic. :rolleyes:

[Hurrem sultana]

To westerners unstudied in any Slavic tongue....

ALL Slavic languages sound Russian :D

NOT really i actually think bosnian,croatian and serbian sound a lot different,i once opened the same thread about bosnian and many said a latin influence was noticeable

[Phil75231]

Here in US when I speak Ukrainian they ask me if I am speaking Arabic. :rolleyes:

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

I don't live anywhere near a lot of either Arabs or Slavs, but even I can tell they don't sound a thing alike.

[Yaroslav]

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

I don't live anywhere near a lot of either Arabs or Slavs, but even I can tell they don't sound a thing alike.

Yes, my point was that *some* Westerners are ignorant. ;)

[rhiannon]

My roommate from medical school was from Slovakia. I used to hear her speaking with her family back home quite a bit. Listening to the language, it simply struck me as sounding very Eastern European:)

[colony]

Czech-Hungarian hybrid