Slovaks
Encyclopedia
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians (Slovak
Slováci, singular Slovák, feminine Slovenka, plural Slovenky) are a West Slavic people
that primarily inhabit Slovakia
and speak the Slovak language
, which is closely related to the Czech language
.
Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia
(circa 4,600,000). There are Slovak minorities in the Czech Republic
, Hungary
, Serbia
and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in the U.S.
and in Canada
.
and the Principality of Nitra
, founded sometime in the 8th century.
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Great Moravia
(833 - ?907) was a Slavic state in the 9th and early 10th centuries, whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. According to some historians, there is no continuity in politics, culture, or written language between this early Slavic polity and the modern Slovak nation. However, this subject is under debate among historians. Its formation and rich cultural heritage have attracted somewhat more interest since 19th century. Important developments took place at this time, including the mission of Greek monks Cyril and Methodius, the development of the Glagolitic alphabet (an early form of the Cyrillic alphabet
), and the use of Old Church Slavonic
as the official and literary language.
The original territory inhabited by the Slavic tribes included not only present-day Slovakia, but also parts of present-day Poland, southeastern Moravia and approximately the entire northern half of present-day Hungary.
under Hungarian rule gradually from 907 to the early 14th century (major part by 1100) and remained within the framework of this kingdom (see also Upper Hungary
or Kingdom of Hungary
) until the formation of Czechoslovakia
in 1918. However, according to other historians, from 895 to 902, the whole area of the present-day Slovakia became part of the rising Principality of Hungary, and became (without gradation) part of the Kingdom of Hungary a century later. The Slovaks never had political or territorial autonomy within Hungary
. A separate entity called Nitra Frontier Duchy
, existed at this time within the Kingdom of Hungary. This duchy was abolished in 1107. The territory inhabited by the Slovaks in present-day Hungary was gradually reduced.
When most of Hungary
was conquered by the Ottoman Empire
in 1541 (see Ottoman Hungary
), Upper Hungary
(now the territory of present day Slovakia
) became the new center of the "reduced" kingdom that remained under Hungarian, and later Habsburg
rule, officially called Royal Hungary
. Some Croats
settled around and in present-day Bratislava
for similar reasons. Also, many Germans
settled in the Kingdom of Hungary
, especially in the towns, as work-seeking colonists and mining experts from the 13th to the 15th century. Jews and Gypsies also formed significant populations within the territory.
After the Ottoman Empire
were forced to retreat from present-day Hungary around 1700, thousands of Slovaks were gradually settled in depopulated parts of the restored Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Hungary
, Romania
, Serbia
, and Croatia
) under Maria Theresia, and that is how present-day Slovak enclaves (like Slovaks in Vojvodina
, Slovaks in Hungary
) in these countries arose.
After Transylvania, Upper Hungary
(the territory of present day Slovakia), was the most advanced part of the Kingdom of Hungary for centuries (the most urbanized part, intense mining of gold and silver), but in the 19th century, when Buda
/Pest
became the new capital of the kingdom, the importance of the territory, as well as other parts within the Kingdom fell, and many Slovaks were impoverished. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Slovaks emigrated to North America
, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century (between cca. 1880–1910), a total of at least 1.5 million emigrants (~2/3 of them were part of some minority).
Slovakia exhibits a very rich folk culture. A part of Slovak customs and social convention are common with those of other nations of the former Habsburg monarchy
(the Kingdom of Hungary was in personal union
with the Habsburg monarchy from 1867 to 1918).
, a new state formed after World War I
. Significant reforms and post-World War II
industrialization took place during this time. The Slovak language
was strongly influenced by the Czech language
during this period.
, 1993
and the accession to the EU in 2004 brought new liberties, which have considerably improved the outlook and prospects of all Slovaks.
Contemporary Slovak society organically combines elements of both folk traditions and Western European lifestyles.
of the Slovaks were used to justify or unjustify historical situations from variant historical perspectives, as the argument of ‘my-nation-was-here-first’ type was, and still remains to be a useful instrument of legitimizing a nation-state’s ownership of a given territory or its claim to an area outside its current borders. The national ideology that the Slovaks are descended from the Slavs
who inhabited the territory of present-day Slovakia between the 5th-10th centuries has a long story and it is connected with the ambition of the Slovaks to reach self-determination
or autonomy
within Hungary
(mostly under romantic nationalism
of the 19th century and during the Slovak national revival
). This continuity theory, supporting the supposed former common past of the Czech and Slovak nations
, thus also legitimizating the creation of the united Czechoslovak nation
, gained political subvention during the formation of Czechoslovakia
. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia
in 1993, and the formation of independent Slovakia motivated interest in a particularly Slovak national identity. One reflection of this was the rejection of the common Czechoslovak national identity in favour of a pure Slovak one. Although the definition and identification of the inhabitants of Great Moravia
proved to be politically imperative and difficult, additionally historical records are anything else but precise in this question, the current consensus among most of the Slovak historians is that Slovaks exist as a people with consciousness of their national identity since the 9th or 10th century, therefore we can identify the Slavic inhabitants living on the territory of this realm as Slovaks. Other Slovak scholars view is, that the emergence of sense of a common Slovak nationhood did not appear until the 18th or 19th century. According to polish
scholar Tomasz Kamusella
tracing the roots of the Slovak nation to the times of Great Moravia, claiming the polity to have been the first Slovak state is nothing else but "ethnolinguistic Slovak nationalism". This 'continuity theory' also contradicts with the internationally accepted theory that distinct Slavic nations had not yet emerged by the 9th century and the culture and language of various Slavic tribes in Central Europe
were indistinguishable from each other. Naming various institutions after the saintly brothers and Great Moravian rulers and devoting commemorative plaques and monuments to them became widespread in post-1993 Slovakia.The University in Nitra was named after St Cyril, and later the university in Trnava added both St Cyril and St Methodius to its name. Kamusella p.887 The laudation of the imagined history of Slovak culture and language led to the myth of the Cyrillo-Methodian dawn of the Slovak nation and was incorporated into the 1991 Slovak Constitution
, which adverts the spiritual heritage of Cyril and Methodius
and the historical heritage of the Great Moravian Empire as inherently Slovak:
There are Slovak historians who suggest that:
As Stanislav Kirschbaum points out:
In this interpretation, the Slovaks have the oldest tradition of statehood
in Central Europe
, but unfortunately, the 'millennium of Hungarian occupation’ caused them to ‘forget’ their proud traditions. Although the idea of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage is very prevalent in nowadays Slovakia
, there is no continuity in politics, culture, or written language
between this early Slavic polity and the modern Slovak nation. Although it seems reasonable to propose that the modern Slovaks may be descendants of the Great Moravian population, this proposition is also true in the case of many modern Central European countries. According to political scientist Timothy Haughton:
The theory of the "Great Moravian" and "Cyrillo-Methodian" heritage dates back to the 18th century. In his writing (Historia gentis Slavae. De regno regibusque Slavorum [History of the Slavic People: On the kingdom and kings of the Slavs]) Georgius Papanek (or Juraj Papánek) traces the roots of the Slovaks to Great Moravia.
According to the Czech priest Josef Dobrovský
, Great Moravia was located in Upper Hungary
and Moravia
(i.e. Present-day Slovakia
and Czech Republic
). Writers of Slavic origin like Juraj Sklenár, and Juraj Fándly
praised Great Moravia as opposed to the ‘heathen Magyars’ who destroyed this realm. In 1879, Jaroslav Vlček wrote that Great Moravia was a common state of Slovaks and Moravians. František Viktor Sasinek asseted in his work "Die Slovaken. Eine Ethnographische Skizze" (The Slovaks: An ethnographic outline) that Great Moravia was the state of the Slovaks, Moravians and Bohemians. According to Josef Ladislav Píč
("O methode dejepisu Slovenska" [On the Methodology of Slovak Historiography]) Great Moravia was the state of the Czechoslovak nation, but he agreed that the separate Slovak nation emerged after the Hungarians destroyed the polity. Slovak historian Julius Botto Jr. asserted ("Slováci. Vývin ich národného povedomia" [The Slovaks: Development of their national consciousness]) that Great Moravia was solely a Slovak realm. Interestingly, Samuel Timon Jesuit priest claimed ("Imago antiquae Hungariae" [The Description of Old Hungary]) that the Hungarians by destroying Great Moravia, had liberated the Slovaks from the Moravian
yoke. It was Ján Hollý
who imprinted the idea of Great Moravia and the Cyrillo-Methodian literacy on the ideological blueprint of Slovak nationalism with his poems (Svatopluk, 1833; Cyrilo-Methodiana, 1835; Slav, 1839). When the Slovaks and Czechs lived in a common state
it was suggested that Great Moravia was the equal legacy of both nations. However, Russian historian George Vernadsky
asserted that Great Moravia is the legacy exclusively of the Czechs.
The opinion of Hungarian historian János Karácsonyi was, that the indigenous Slavs had died out or they had been assimilated by Hungarians, therefore contemporary Slovaks are the progeny of the White Croats
(arrived from the north and north-west by the twelfth century in to Hungary
) the Czech (Bohemia
n, Moravia
n), Polish (Lesser Polish
) and German (Silesia
n, Saxonian
, Swabia
n) settlers who came to Hungary during 10th–18th century. According to this theory, only a small part of present-day Slovakia was inhabited during the reign of Stephen I, thus there is no direct connection between the autochthonous Slavic population living in the territory of present-day Slovakia before the 12th century and modern Slovaks. After the Treaty of Trianon
, the theory of Karácsonyi became very popular among Hungarian politicians and it was utilized to prove the Hungarian view that the separation of the territory of Slovakia from Hungary was unjustified. Czech historian Václav Chaloupecký also admitted that most of the territory of present-day Slovakia (except the southern parts) was a primeval forest until the thirteenth century and an intentionally unpopulated frontier region of the Kingdom of Hungary
. Chaloupecký asserted that Slovaks are Czechs by origin but their almost 1000-years existence in the Kingdom of Hungary
led to their separation from the Czech nation. Furthermore, he also considered that the Walachian populations
, especially in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries were significant agents in the ethnogenesis of the Slovaks. However Chaloupecký had no doubts about that after the eleventh century the Slavonic inhabitants of south-western Slovakia were descendants of those Slavs who had lived there in the ninth and the tenth centuries.
"Slovak" is still slovenský and the feminine noun
"Slovak" is still Slovenka in the Slovak language; only the masculine
noun "Slovak" changed to Slovenin, probably in the High Middle Ages
, and finally (under Czech and Polish
influence) to Slovák around 1400. For Slovenes, the adjective is still slovenski and the feminine noun
"Slovene" is still Slovenka, but the masculine
noun has since changed to Slovenec. The Slovak name for their language is slovenčina and the Slovene name for theirs is slovenščina. The Slovak term for the Slovene language is slovinčina; and the Slovenes call Slovak slovaščina. The name is derived from proto-Slavic form slovo "word, talk" (cf. Slovak sluch, which comes from the IE root *ḱlew-). Thus Slovaks as well as Slovenians would mean "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other.
According to Nestor
and modern Slavic linguists, the above-mentioned word slověn probably was the original name of all Slavs, but most Slavs (Czechs, Poles, Croats, etc.) took other names in the Early Middle Ages
. Although the Slovaks themselves seem to have had a slightly different word for "Slavs" (Slovan), they were called "Slavs" by Latin texts approximately up to the High Middle Ages. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish when Slavs in general and when Slovaks are meant. One proof of the use of "Slavs" in the sense of "Slovaks" are documents of the Kingdom of Hungary
which mention Bohemians (Czechs), Poles
under a different name. Slovaks of Hungary were dubbed as "Slavi Pannonii" and Czechs as "Slavi Bohemii". The semantic closeness of the ethnonym ‘Slovak’ to that of ‘Slav’ endowed the Slovak national movement with the myth that of all the Slavic nations the Slovaks are the most direct descendants of the original Slavs, and the Slovak language the most direct continuation of Old Slavic.
- carry Eurasia
n lineages as a consequence of admixture with Central Asia
n nomadic tribes, who migrate
d into Central and Eastern Europe
in the early Middle Ages
. Slovak populations do not cluster together. Western Slovaks are located together with the Czechs and Austrian
s, while eastern Slovaks are placed close to Slovenians. Slovak mtDNAs belong to the common West Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroup
s, but characterized by a small frequency of East Eurasia
n (2,8 percent) and Gypsy-specific (2,8 percent) mtDNA lineages. Furthermore, Africa
n mtDNAs (L2a) are present in the population from the eastern part of the country. About 3 percent of mtDNAs from eastern Slovakia
encompass Gypsy-specific lineages, which belong to the India
n-specific haplogroups M5a1 and M35. The Gypsy related J1 haplotype appeares in 2,9 percent of persons from eastern Slovakia. The identified M-haplotype in Slovaks is also known among Italians, Saudi Arabians and Bedouins from Israel
.
(historically correctly) describes the Slovaks: Slavs that were settled along the Danube, which have been occupied by the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Lachs, and Poles that are now known as the Rus. Nestor calls these Slavs "Slavs of Hungary" in another place of the text, and mentions them in the first place in a list of Slavic nations (besides Moravians, Bohemians, Poles, Russians, etc.), because he considers the Carpathian Basin (including what is today Slovakia) the original Slavic territory.
Anonymus, in his Gesta Hungarorum
, calls the Slovaks (around 1200 with respect to past developments) Sclavi, i.e. Slavs (as opposed to "Boemy" - the Bohemians, and "Polony" - the Poles) or in another place Nytriensis Sclavi, i.e. Nitrian
Slavs.
And this is how Slovaks were called in various very precise sources approximately from 1200 to about 1400: Slovyenyn, Slowyenyny; Sclavus, Sclavi, Slavus, Slavi; Tóth; Winde, Wende, Wenden.
The art of Slovakia can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when some of the greatest masterpieces of the country's history were created. Significant figures from this period included the many Masters, among them the Master Paul of Levoča
and Master MS
. More contemporary art can be seen in the shadows of Koloman Sokol
, Albín Brunovský
, Martin Benka
, Mikuláš Galanda
, Ľudovít Fulla
. Julius Koller and Stanislav Filko, in the 21st century Roman Ondak, Blazej Balaz
. The most important Slovak composers have been Eugen Suchoň
, Ján Cikker
, and Alexander Moyzes
, in the 21st century Vladimir Godar and Peter Machajdik
.
The most famous Slovak name
s can indubitably be attributed to invention and technology. Such people include Jozef Murgaš
, the inventor of wireless telegraphy; Ján Bahýľ
, Štefan Banič
, inventor of the modern parachute; Aurel Stodola
, inventor of the bionic arm and pioneer in thermodynamics; and, more recently, John Dopyera
, father of modern acoustic string instruments.
Štefan Anián Jedlík
Slovakia is also known for its polyhistors, of whom include Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Matej Bel
, Ján Kollár
, and its political revolutionaries, such Milan Rastislav Štefánik
and Alexander Dubček
.
There were two leading persons who codified the Slovak language. The first one was Anton Bernolák
whose concept was based on the dialect of western Slovakia (1787). It was the enactment of the first national literary language of Slovaks ever. The second notable man was Ľudovít Štúr
. His formation of the Slovak language had principles in the dialect of central Slovakia (1843).
The best known Slovak hero was Juraj Jánošík
(the Slovak equivalent of Robin Hood
). Prominent explorer Móric Benyovszky had Slovak ancestors.
In terms of sports, the Slovaks are probably best known (in North America) for their hockey personalities, especially Stan Mikita
, Peter Šťastný
, Peter Bondra
, Žigmund Pálffy
and Marián Hossa
. For a list see List of Slovaks.
For a list of the most notable Slovak writers and poets, see List of Slovak authors.
The list stems from Claude Baláž, a Canadian Slovak, the current plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Slovaks abroad (see e.g.: 6) :
The number of Slovaks living outside Slovakia in line with the above data was estimated at max. 2 016 000 in 2001 (2 660 000 in 1991), implying that, in sum, there were max. some 6 630 854 Slovaks in 2001 (7 180 000 in 1991) in the world. The estimate according to the right-hand site chart yields an approximate population of Slovaks living outside Slovakia of 1.5 million.
Other (much higher) estimates stemming from the Dom zahraničných Slovákov (House of Foreign Slovaks) can be found on SME
.
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
Slováci, singular Slovák, feminine Slovenka, plural Slovenky) are a West Slavic people
West Slavs
The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages. They include Poles , Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Sorbs and the historical Polabians. The northern or Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages...
that primarily inhabit Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and speak the Slovak language
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
, which is closely related to the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
.
Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
(circa 4,600,000). There are Slovak minorities in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Slavs of the Pannonian Basin
The first known Slavic states on the territory of present-day Slovakia were the Empire of SamoSamo
Samo was a Frankish merchant from the "Senonian country" , probably modern Soignies, Belgium or Sens, France. He was the first ruler of the Slavs whose name is known, and established one of the earliest Slav states, a supra-tribal union usually called Samo's empire, realm, kingdom, or tribal...
and the Principality of Nitra
Principality of Nitra
The Principality of Nitra also Nitrian Principality or Slovak Principality is the name for a polity of Nitra Sloviens, centered on large agglomeration, a multi-tribal centre around Nitra, Slovakia. The initially independent Principality of Nitra came into existence in the early 9th century...
, founded sometime in the 8th century.
Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
(833 - ?907) was a Slavic state in the 9th and early 10th centuries, whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. According to some historians, there is no continuity in politics, culture, or written language between this early Slavic polity and the modern Slovak nation. However, this subject is under debate among historians. Its formation and rich cultural heritage have attracted somewhat more interest since 19th century. Important developments took place at this time, including the mission of Greek monks Cyril and Methodius, the development of the Glagolitic alphabet (an early form of the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
), and the use of Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
as the official and literary language.
The original territory inhabited by the Slavic tribes included not only present-day Slovakia, but also parts of present-day Poland, southeastern Moravia and approximately the entire northern half of present-day Hungary.
Kingdom of Hungary
The territory of present day Slovakia became part of the Kingdom of HungaryKingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
under Hungarian rule gradually from 907 to the early 14th century (major part by 1100) and remained within the framework of this kingdom (see also Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
or Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
) until the formation of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in 1918. However, according to other historians, from 895 to 902, the whole area of the present-day Slovakia became part of the rising Principality of Hungary, and became (without gradation) part of the Kingdom of Hungary a century later. The Slovaks never had political or territorial autonomy within Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. A separate entity called Nitra Frontier Duchy
Principality of Nitra
The Principality of Nitra also Nitrian Principality or Slovak Principality is the name for a polity of Nitra Sloviens, centered on large agglomeration, a multi-tribal centre around Nitra, Slovakia. The initially independent Principality of Nitra came into existence in the early 9th century...
, existed at this time within the Kingdom of Hungary. This duchy was abolished in 1107. The territory inhabited by the Slovaks in present-day Hungary was gradually reduced.
When most of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
was conquered by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in 1541 (see Ottoman Hungary
Ottoman Hungary
History of Ottoman Hungary refers to the history of parts of the Ottoman Empire situated in what today is Hungary, in the period from 1541 to 1699.-History:...
), Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
(now the territory of present day Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
) became the new center of the "reduced" kingdom that remained under Hungarian, and later Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
rule, officially called Royal Hungary
Royal Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1538 and 1867 was part of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, while outside the Holy Roman Empire.After Battle of Mohács, the country was ruled by two crowned kings . They divided the kingdom in 1538...
. Some Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
settled around and in present-day Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
for similar reasons. Also, many Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
settled in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, especially in the towns, as work-seeking colonists and mining experts from the 13th to the 15th century. Jews and Gypsies also formed significant populations within the territory.
After the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
were forced to retreat from present-day Hungary around 1700, thousands of Slovaks were gradually settled in depopulated parts of the restored Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) under Maria Theresia, and that is how present-day Slovak enclaves (like Slovaks in Vojvodina
Slovaks in Vojvodina
Slovaks are the third largest ethnic group in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. According to the 2002 census, there are 56,637 ethnic Slovaks in Vojvodina, constituting 2.79% in the population of the province...
, Slovaks in Hungary
Slovaks in Hungary
Slovaks in Hungary , are the minority in Hungary. The number of people belonging to the Slovak national minority is estimated to be from 17,692 , to 56 107 Slovak speakers and 110,000...
) in these countries arose.
After Transylvania, Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
(the territory of present day Slovakia), was the most advanced part of the Kingdom of Hungary for centuries (the most urbanized part, intense mining of gold and silver), but in the 19th century, when Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
/Pest
Pest (city)
Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...
became the new capital of the kingdom, the importance of the territory, as well as other parts within the Kingdom fell, and many Slovaks were impoverished. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Slovaks emigrated to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century (between cca. 1880–1910), a total of at least 1.5 million emigrants (~2/3 of them were part of some minority).
Slovakia exhibits a very rich folk culture. A part of Slovak customs and social convention are common with those of other nations of the former Habsburg monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
(the Kingdom of Hungary was in personal union
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
with the Habsburg monarchy from 1867 to 1918).
Czechoslovakia
People of Slovakia spent most part of the 20th century within the framework of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, a new state formed after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Significant reforms and post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
industrialization took place during this time. The Slovak language
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
was strongly influenced by the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
during this period.
Contemporary Slovaks
The political transformations of 1989Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
, 1993
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on 1 January 1993, was an event that saw the self-determined separation of the federal state of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities which had arisen in 1969 within the framework of Czechoslovak federalisation, became...
and the accession to the EU in 2004 brought new liberties, which have considerably improved the outlook and prospects of all Slovaks.
Contemporary Slovak society organically combines elements of both folk traditions and Western European lifestyles.
Name and ethnogenesis
The origin of the Slovaks is disputed among scholars and it is very contentious. The term of "Slovak" is problematic in relation of the medieval period, because it is essentially the product of the modern nationalism as it emerged after the 18th century. Throughout history, the diverse theories regarding the ethnogenesisEthnogenesis
Ethnogenesis is the process by which a group of human beings comes to be understood or to understand themselves as ethnically distinct from the wider social landscape from which their grouping emerges...
of the Slovaks were used to justify or unjustify historical situations from variant historical perspectives, as the argument of ‘my-nation-was-here-first’ type was, and still remains to be a useful instrument of legitimizing a nation-state’s ownership of a given territory or its claim to an area outside its current borders. The national ideology that the Slovaks are descended from the Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
who inhabited the territory of present-day Slovakia between the 5th-10th centuries has a long story and it is connected with the ambition of the Slovaks to reach self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
or autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
within Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(mostly under romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
of the 19th century and during the Slovak national revival
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
). This continuity theory, supporting the supposed former common past of the Czech and Slovak nations
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
, thus also legitimizating the creation of the united Czechoslovak nation
Czechoslovakism
Czechoslovakism is a term for the political and cultural conception of a unified Czechoslovak nation and disapproval of differentiating separate nations of Czechs and Slovaks. This nation was made ideologically for a newborn country, which needed to identify itself on national level...
, gained political subvention during the formation of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on 1 January 1993, was an event that saw the self-determined separation of the federal state of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities which had arisen in 1969 within the framework of Czechoslovak federalisation, became...
in 1993, and the formation of independent Slovakia motivated interest in a particularly Slovak national identity. One reflection of this was the rejection of the common Czechoslovak national identity in favour of a pure Slovak one. Although the definition and identification of the inhabitants of Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
proved to be politically imperative and difficult, additionally historical records are anything else but precise in this question, the current consensus among most of the Slovak historians is that Slovaks exist as a people with consciousness of their national identity since the 9th or 10th century, therefore we can identify the Slavic inhabitants living on the territory of this realm as Slovaks. Other Slovak scholars view is, that the emergence of sense of a common Slovak nationhood did not appear until the 18th or 19th century. According to polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
scholar Tomasz Kamusella
Tomasz Kamusella
Tomasz Kamusella is a European scholar pursuing interdisciplinary research in language politics, nationalism and ethnicity.-Education:...
tracing the roots of the Slovak nation to the times of Great Moravia, claiming the polity to have been the first Slovak state is nothing else but "ethnolinguistic Slovak nationalism". This 'continuity theory' also contradicts with the internationally accepted theory that distinct Slavic nations had not yet emerged by the 9th century and the culture and language of various Slavic tribes in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
were indistinguishable from each other. Naming various institutions after the saintly brothers and Great Moravian rulers and devoting commemorative plaques and monuments to them became widespread in post-1993 Slovakia.The University in Nitra was named after St Cyril, and later the university in Trnava added both St Cyril and St Methodius to its name. Kamusella p.887 The laudation of the imagined history of Slovak culture and language led to the myth of the Cyrillo-Methodian dawn of the Slovak nation and was incorporated into the 1991 Slovak Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
, which adverts the spiritual heritage of Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
and the historical heritage of the Great Moravian Empire as inherently Slovak:
There are Slovak historians who suggest that:
As Stanislav Kirschbaum points out:
In this interpretation, the Slovaks have the oldest tradition of statehood
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
, but unfortunately, the 'millennium of Hungarian occupation’ caused them to ‘forget’ their proud traditions. Although the idea of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage is very prevalent in nowadays Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, there is no continuity in politics, culture, or written language
Written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
between this early Slavic polity and the modern Slovak nation. Although it seems reasonable to propose that the modern Slovaks may be descendants of the Great Moravian population, this proposition is also true in the case of many modern Central European countries. According to political scientist Timothy Haughton:
According to the Czech priest Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský was a Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech national revival.- Life & Work :...
, Great Moravia was located in Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
and Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
(i.e. Present-day Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
). Writers of Slavic origin like Juraj Sklenár, and Juraj Fándly
Juraj Fándly
- Life :He was born in Častá, Kingdom of Hungary into a craftsman-farmer's family. His father died soon after his birth, and mother moved to the neighbouring village of Doľany, where he also visited elementary school. He later studied at a Piarist gymnasium in Svätý Jur, later studied theology in...
praised Great Moravia as opposed to the ‘heathen Magyars’ who destroyed this realm. In 1879, Jaroslav Vlček wrote that Great Moravia was a common state of Slovaks and Moravians. František Viktor Sasinek asseted in his work "Die Slovaken. Eine Ethnographische Skizze" (The Slovaks: An ethnographic outline) that Great Moravia was the state of the Slovaks, Moravians and Bohemians. According to Josef Ladislav Píč
Josef Ladislav Píc
Josef Ladislav Píč was Czech archaeologist and paleontologist, one of founders of modern Czech archaeology....
("O methode dejepisu Slovenska" [On the Methodology of Slovak Historiography]) Great Moravia was the state of the Czechoslovak nation, but he agreed that the separate Slovak nation emerged after the Hungarians destroyed the polity. Slovak historian Julius Botto Jr. asserted ("Slováci. Vývin ich národného povedomia" [The Slovaks: Development of their national consciousness]) that Great Moravia was solely a Slovak realm. Interestingly, Samuel Timon Jesuit priest claimed ("Imago antiquae Hungariae" [The Description of Old Hungary]) that the Hungarians by destroying Great Moravia, had liberated the Slovaks from the Moravian
Moravians (ethnic group)
Moravians are the modern West Slavic inhabitants of the historical land of Moravia, the easternmost part of the Czech Republic, which includes the Moravian Slovakia. They speak the two main groups of Moravian dialects , the transitional Bohemian-Moravian dialect subgroup and standard Czech...
yoke. It was Ján Hollý
Ján Hollý
Ján Hollý was a Slovak poet and translator. He was the first greater Slovak poet to write exclusively in the newly standardized literary Slovak language. His predecessors mostly wrote in various regional versions of Czech, Slovakized Czech or Latin...
who imprinted the idea of Great Moravia and the Cyrillo-Methodian literacy on the ideological blueprint of Slovak nationalism with his poems (Svatopluk, 1833; Cyrilo-Methodiana, 1835; Slav, 1839). When the Slovaks and Czechs lived in a common state
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
it was suggested that Great Moravia was the equal legacy of both nations. However, Russian historian George Vernadsky
George Vernadsky
George Vernadsky , Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский) was a Russian-American historian and an author of numerous books on Russian history.- European years :...
asserted that Great Moravia is the legacy exclusively of the Czechs.
The opinion of Hungarian historian János Karácsonyi was, that the indigenous Slavs had died out or they had been assimilated by Hungarians, therefore contemporary Slovaks are the progeny of the White Croats
White Croats
White Croats is the designation for the group of Slavic tribes, of which seven tribes led by 5 brothers and 2 sisters migrated to Dalmatia as part of the migration of the Croats in the 7th century, being invited to settle on this vastly depopulated area by Roman...
(arrived from the north and north-west by the twelfth century in to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
) the Czech (Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n, Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
n), Polish (Lesser Polish
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...
) and German (Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n, Saxonian
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n) settlers who came to Hungary during 10th–18th century. According to this theory, only a small part of present-day Slovakia was inhabited during the reign of Stephen I, thus there is no direct connection between the autochthonous Slavic population living in the territory of present-day Slovakia before the 12th century and modern Slovaks. After the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
, the theory of Karácsonyi became very popular among Hungarian politicians and it was utilized to prove the Hungarian view that the separation of the territory of Slovakia from Hungary was unjustified. Czech historian Václav Chaloupecký also admitted that most of the territory of present-day Slovakia (except the southern parts) was a primeval forest until the thirteenth century and an intentionally unpopulated frontier region of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. Chaloupecký asserted that Slovaks are Czechs by origin but their almost 1000-years existence in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
led to their separation from the Czech nation. Furthermore, he also considered that the Walachian populations
Moravian Wallachia
Moravian Wallachia is a mountainous region located in the easternmost part of Moravia, Czech Republic, near the Slovakian border. The name Wallachia was formerly applied to all the highlands of Moravia and neighboring Silesia, although in the nineteenth century a smaller area came to be defined...
, especially in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries were significant agents in the ethnogenesis of the Slovaks. However Chaloupecký had no doubts about that after the eleventh century the Slavonic inhabitants of south-western Slovakia were descendants of those Slavs who had lived there in the ninth and the tenth centuries.
Origin of the word 'Slovak'
The Slovaks and Slovenes are the only current Slavic nations that have preserved the old name of the Slavs (singular: slověn) in their name - the adjectiveAdjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
"Slovak" is still slovenský and the feminine noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
"Slovak" is still Slovenka in the Slovak language; only the masculine
Masculine
Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...
noun "Slovak" changed to Slovenin, probably in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, and finally (under Czech and Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
influence) to Slovák around 1400. For Slovenes, the adjective is still slovenski and the feminine noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
"Slovene" is still Slovenka, but the masculine
Masculine
Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...
noun has since changed to Slovenec. The Slovak name for their language is slovenčina and the Slovene name for theirs is slovenščina. The Slovak term for the Slovene language is slovinčina; and the Slovenes call Slovak slovaščina. The name is derived from proto-Slavic form slovo "word, talk" (cf. Slovak sluch, which comes from the IE root *ḱlew-). Thus Slovaks as well as Slovenians would mean "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other.
According to Nestor
Nestor the Chronicler
Saint Nestor the Chronicler was the reputed author of the Primary Chronicle, , Life of the Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Life of the Holy Passion Bearers, Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading.Nestor was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev from 1073...
and modern Slavic linguists, the above-mentioned word slověn probably was the original name of all Slavs, but most Slavs (Czechs, Poles, Croats, etc.) took other names in the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
. Although the Slovaks themselves seem to have had a slightly different word for "Slavs" (Slovan), they were called "Slavs" by Latin texts approximately up to the High Middle Ages. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish when Slavs in general and when Slovaks are meant. One proof of the use of "Slavs" in the sense of "Slovaks" are documents of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
which mention Bohemians (Czechs), Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
under a different name. Slovaks of Hungary were dubbed as "Slavi Pannonii" and Czechs as "Slavi Bohemii". The semantic closeness of the ethnonym ‘Slovak’ to that of ‘Slav’ endowed the Slovak national movement with the myth that of all the Slavic nations the Slovaks are the most direct descendants of the original Slavs, and the Slovak language the most direct continuation of Old Slavic.
Ethnic affiliations and genetic origins
Slovaks -as other slavonic ethnical groups in Central EuropeCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
- carry Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n lineages as a consequence of admixture with Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n nomadic tribes, who migrate
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
d into Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
in the early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
. Slovak populations do not cluster together. Western Slovaks are located together with the Czechs and Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
s, while eastern Slovaks are placed close to Slovenians. Slovak mtDNAs belong to the common West Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroup
Haplogroup
In the study of molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in both haplotypes. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, this is what makes it possible to predict a haplogroup...
s, but characterized by a small frequency of East Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n (2,8 percent) and Gypsy-specific (2,8 percent) mtDNA lineages. Furthermore, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n mtDNAs (L2a) are present in the population from the eastern part of the country. About 3 percent of mtDNAs from eastern Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
encompass Gypsy-specific lineages, which belong to the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n-specific haplogroups M5a1 and M35. The Gypsy related J1 haplotype appeares in 2,9 percent of persons from eastern Slovakia. The identified M-haplotype in Slovaks is also known among Italians, Saudi Arabians and Bedouins from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Quotes from important chronicles
This is how Nestor in his Primary ChroniclePrimary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
(historically correctly) describes the Slovaks: Slavs that were settled along the Danube, which have been occupied by the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Lachs, and Poles that are now known as the Rus. Nestor calls these Slavs "Slavs of Hungary" in another place of the text, and mentions them in the first place in a list of Slavic nations (besides Moravians, Bohemians, Poles, Russians, etc.), because he considers the Carpathian Basin (including what is today Slovakia) the original Slavic territory.
Anonymus, in his Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum is a record of early Hungarian history by an unknown author who describes himself as Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii , but is generally cited as Anonymus...
, calls the Slovaks (around 1200 with respect to past developments) Sclavi, i.e. Slavs (as opposed to "Boemy" - the Bohemians, and "Polony" - the Poles) or in another place Nytriensis Sclavi, i.e. Nitrian
Principality of Nitra
The Principality of Nitra also Nitrian Principality or Slovak Principality is the name for a polity of Nitra Sloviens, centered on large agglomeration, a multi-tribal centre around Nitra, Slovakia. The initially independent Principality of Nitra came into existence in the early 9th century...
Slavs.
And this is how Slovaks were called in various very precise sources approximately from 1200 to about 1400: Slovyenyn, Slowyenyny; Sclavus, Sclavi, Slavus, Slavi; Tóth; Winde, Wende, Wenden.
Culture
- See also List of Slovaks
Master Paul of Levoca
Master Paul of Levoča was a medieval carver and sculptor of the15th and 16th century, active mostly in the town of Levoča , in the Kingdom of Hungary, in what is today eastern Slovakia....
and Master MS
Master MS
Master M. S. was a 16th century painter who specialized in late Gothic art and in early Renaissance art.He was active in Banská Štiavnica and probably led a workshop there. Since his true name is unknown, he is sometimes identified with various other Gothic "masters"...
. More contemporary art can be seen in the shadows of Koloman Sokol
Koloman Sokol
Koloman Sokol was one of the most prominent Slovak painters, graphic artists and illustrators...
, Albín Brunovský
Albín Brunovský
Albín Brunovský was a Slovak painter, graphic artist, lithographer, illustrator and pedagogue, considered one of the greatest Slovak painters of the 20th century....
, Martin Benka
Martin Benka
Martin Benka was a Slovak painter and illustrator. He is regarded as the founder of Modernist 20th century Slovak painting...
, Mikuláš Galanda
Mikuláš Galanda
Mikuláš Galanda was a renowned painter, illustrator, and one of the most important pioneers and propagators of Slovakian modern art. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Martin.-Education:* 1914-1916 Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest* 1922 Artistic and Industrial School in Prague Mikuláš...
, Ľudovít Fulla
Ludovít Fulla
Ľudovít Fulla was a Slovak painter, graphic artist, illustrator, stage designer and art teacher. He is considered one of the most important figures of Slovakian Creative Art in the 20th century....
. Julius Koller and Stanislav Filko, in the 21st century Roman Ondak, Blazej Balaz
Blažej Baláž
Blažej Baláž is a contemporary Slovak artist. His practise as an artist is usually associated with Neo-conceptualism, Postminimalism, Post-Geo and Post Radical Painting...
. The most important Slovak composers have been Eugen Suchoň
Eugen Suchon
Eugen Suchoň was one of the greatest Slovak composers of the 20th century.-Early life:...
, Ján Cikker
Ján Cikker
Ján Cikker was a Slovak composer, a leading exponent of modern Slovak classical music. He was awarded the title National Artist in Slovakia, the Herder Prize and the UNESCO Prize .-Life:...
, and Alexander Moyzes
Alexander Moyzes
Alexander Moyzes , was a Slovak 20th century neoromantic composer.-Biography:Moyzes was born into a musical family in 1906 at Kláštor pod Znievom in present Slovakia. His father was the composer and educator Mikuláš Moyzes...
, in the 21st century Vladimir Godar and Peter Machajdik
Peter Machajdik
Peter Machajdík is a contemporary Slovak composer and sound artist. He grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia and lives in Berlin, Germany....
.
The most famous Slovak name
Slovak name
Slovak names - consist of given names and the family name. They are very similar to the Czech names.-Given name:Generally may have Christian roots or traditional Slavic pre-Christian origin...
s can indubitably be attributed to invention and technology. Such people include Jozef Murgaš
Jozef Murgaš
Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot, and Roman Catholic priest...
, the inventor of wireless telegraphy; Ján Bahýľ
Ján Bahýl
Ján Bahýľ was a Slovak inventor and constructor. He was working on several problems from the areas of military science, military construction, engineering etc. Among others, he focused on flying machines. In 1895, he was granted a patent on helicopter.-Biography:Ján Bahýľ was born in Zvolenská...
, Štefan Banič
Štefan Banic
Štefan Banič was a Slovak inventor who devised a military parachute, the first parachute ever deployed in actual use....
, inventor of the modern parachute; Aurel Stodola
Aurel Stodola
Aurel Boleslav Stodola was an engineer, physicist, and inventor. He was an ethnic Slovak. He was a pioneer in the area of technical thermodynamics and its applications and published his book Die Dampfturbine in 1903...
, inventor of the bionic arm and pioneer in thermodynamics; and, more recently, John Dopyera
John Dopyera
John Dopyera was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, and a maker of stringed instruments. His inventions include the resonator guitar and important contributions in the early development of the electric guitar....
, father of modern acoustic string instruments.
Štefan Anián Jedlík
Slovakia is also known for its polyhistors, of whom include Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Matej Bel
Matej Bel
Matthias Bel or Matthias Bél was a Lutheran pastor and polymath from the Kingdom of Hungary. He is also known as the Great Ornament of Hungary . He described himself as "lingua Sla-vus, natione Hungarus, eruditione Germanus"...
, Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
, and its political revolutionaries, such Milan Rastislav Štefánik
Milan Rastislav Štefánik
Milan Rastislav Štefánik , Kingdom of Hungary – May 4, 1919 in Ivanka pri Dunaji, Czechoslovakia) was a Slovak politician, diplomat, and astronomer. During World War I, he was General of the French Army, at the same time the Czechoslovak Minister of War, one of the leading members of the...
and Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
.
There were two leading persons who codified the Slovak language. The first one was Anton Bernolák
Anton Bernolák
Anton Bernolák Anton Bernolák Anton Bernolák (1 October 1762 in Slanica (a now inundated village near Námestovo – 15 January 1813 in Nové Zámky) was a Slovak linguist and Catholic priest and the author of the first Slovak language standard.-Life:...
whose concept was based on the dialect of western Slovakia (1787). It was the enactment of the first national literary language of Slovaks ever. The second notable man was Ľudovít Štúr
Ludovít Štúr
Ľudovít Štúr , known in his era as Ludevít Velislav Štúr, was the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language...
. His formation of the Slovak language had principles in the dialect of central Slovakia (1843).
The best known Slovak hero was Juraj Jánošík
Juraj Jánošík
Juraj Jánošík was a famous Slovak Carpathian Highwayman....
(the Slovak equivalent of Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
). Prominent explorer Móric Benyovszky had Slovak ancestors.
In terms of sports, the Slovaks are probably best known (in North America) for their hockey personalities, especially Stan Mikita
Stan Mikita
Stanislav "Stan" Mikita , is a Slovak-born Canadian retired professional ice hockey player, generally regarded as the best centre of the 1960s. In 1961, he won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he played his entire career.-Early life:Mikita was born in Sokolče, Slovak Republic...
, Peter Šťastný
Peter Stastny
Peter Šťastný , also known colloquially as "Peter the Great" and "Stosh", is a retired Slovak professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League from 1980 to 1995. During his time with the Quebec Nordiques, Stastny became a Canadian citizen. Since 2004, he has also served as a...
, Peter Bondra
Peter Bondra
Peter Bondra is a former Slovak professional ice hockey player. He was the general manager of the Slovak national team from 2007 to 2011...
, Žigmund Pálffy
Zigmund Palffy
Žigmund "Ziggy" Pálffy is a Slovak professional ice hockey player of Hungarian origin, who plays for HK 36 Skalica of the Slovak Extraliga....
and Marián Hossa
Marian Hossa
Marián Hossa is a Slovak professional ice hockey player who currently plays for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League . Hossa was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft; after playing for the Senators, he played for the Atlanta Thrashers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and...
. For a list see List of Slovaks.
For a list of the most notable Slovak writers and poets, see List of Slovak authors.
Statistics
There are approximately 5.4 million autochthonous Slovaks in Slovakia. Further Slovaks live in the following countries (the list shows estimates of embassies etc. and of associations of Slovaks abroad in the first place, and official data of the countries as of 2000/2001 in the second place).The list stems from Claude Baláž, a Canadian Slovak, the current plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Slovaks abroad (see e.g.: 6) :
- USA (1 200 000 / 821 325*) [*(1)there were, however, 1 882 915 Slovaks in the US according to the 1990 census, (2) there are some 400 000 "Czechoslovaks" in the US, a large part of which are Slovaks] - 19th - 21st century emigrants; see also Census.gov
- Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
(350 000 / 183 749*) [*there were, however, 314 877 Slovaks in the Czech Republic according to the 1991 census] - due to the existence of former CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992... - HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(39 266 / 17 693) - CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(100 000 / 50 860) - 19th - 21st century migrants - SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
(60 000 / 59 021*) [especially in VojvodinaVojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
;*excl. the Rusins] - 18th & 19th century settlers - PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(2002) (47 000 / 2 000*) [* The Central Census Commission has accepted the objection of the Association of Slovaks in Poland with respect to this number ]- ancient minority and due to border shifts during the 20th century - RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
(18 000 / 17 199) - ancient minority - UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(17 000 / 6 397) [especially in Carpathian RutheniaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
] - ancient minority and due to the existence of former Czechoslovakia - FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(13 000/ n.a.) - AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(12 000 / n.a.) - 20th - 21st century migrants - AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
(10 234 / 10 234) - 20th - 21st century migrants - United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(10 000 / n.a.) - CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
(5 000 / 4 712) - 18th & 19th century settlers - other countries
The number of Slovaks living outside Slovakia in line with the above data was estimated at max. 2 016 000 in 2001 (2 660 000 in 1991), implying that, in sum, there were max. some 6 630 854 Slovaks in 2001 (7 180 000 in 1991) in the world. The estimate according to the right-hand site chart yields an approximate population of Slovaks living outside Slovakia of 1.5 million.
Other (much higher) estimates stemming from the Dom zahraničných Slovákov (House of Foreign Slovaks) can be found on SME
SME (newspaper)
SME or Denník SME is the most widely read and very influential mainstream broadsheet in Slovakia.Its target group is very wide, but officially it focuses on readers in bigger cities and agglomerations. Its circulation in December 2006 was 76 590. It appears 6 times a week. It is issued by Petit...
.
See also
- History of the Slovak language
- List of Slovak Americans
- List of Slovaks
- SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
- Slovaks in BulgariaCzechs and Slovaks in BulgariaCzechs and Slovaks are a minority ethnic group in Bulgaria . According to the 2001 census, Czechs number only 316 and the number of Slovaks is even smaller, but historically, their population has been considerably larger.-History:...
- Slovaks in VojvodinaSlovaks in VojvodinaSlovaks are the third largest ethnic group in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. According to the 2002 census, there are 56,637 ethnic Slovaks in Vojvodina, constituting 2.79% in the population of the province...
- Slovenes
