Eastern Slovak dialects

"Slovjak" and "Slovjak language" redirect here. For the cultural and political movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in eastern Slovakia, see Slovjak movement.
Eastern Slovak
východoslovenské nárečia, východniarčina
Native toSlovakia
RegionSpiš, Šariš, Zemplín and Abov
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
slk-esl
GlottologNone
Eastern Slovak is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Eastern Slovak dialects (Slovak: východoslovenské nárečia, východniarčina) are dialects of the Slovak language spoken natively in the historical regions of Spiš, Šariš, Zemplín and Abov,[1] in the east of Slovakia. In contrast to other dialects of Slovak, Eastern dialects are less intelligible with Czech and more with Polish and Rusyn.[2]

Features of the dialects vary greatly from region to region, but features that are common throughout all dialects include the lack of long vowels, stress on the penultimate syllable, as in Polish and Rusyn, as opposed to the first syllable stress normal in standard Slovak,[1] and variation in noun declension endings.[3] Eastern Slovak dialects also share many features of Western Slovak dialects that are absent from Central dialects and standard Slovak, supporting the idea that Central Slovakia was inhabited[clarification needed] more recently than the east and west of the country.[4]

Attempts to create an East Slovak literary standard have been varied and unsuccessful. Several Slovak newspapers founded in the United States in the late 19th century, including Slovák v Amerike ("Slovak in America") and Amerikánsko-Slovenské Noviny (The American-Slovak News), were initially written in Eastern Slovak dialects.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ a b Polívka E.; Vindiš I. "Nárečový svojraz východného Slovenska" (PDF). Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  2. ^ Štolc, Jozef (1994). Slovenská dialektológia [Slovak dialectology]. Bratislava: Veda.: Ed. I. Ripka.
  3. ^ Buffa, Ferdinand (1962). "Eastern Slovak dialects (in Slovak)" (PDF). Vlastivedný Časopis. IX. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  4. ^ International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. 2003. p. 411.
  5. ^ Kamusella, Tomasz (2009). The politics of language and nationalism in modern Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 821. ISBN 978-0230550704.
  6. ^ Švagrovský, Štefan; Ondrejovič, Slavomír (2004). "East Slovak language separatism in the 19th and 20th centuries". Slovenská Reč (3). Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  7. ^ Lifanov, Konstantin (2006). "Once More about the Language of Eastern Slovak Publications in the USA" (PDF). Slovenská Reč (5): 282. Retrieved 23 November 2012.