Slovak/Slovakian: Specialist translation & simultaneous interpreting

Like Czech and Polish, Slovak belongs to the West Slavic languages of the Indo-European language family.

Slovak is the language of most people in the Slovak Republic, which used to be part of the Hungarian Kingdom, Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia and is an independent country with a population of around 5 million today. Slovak is also spoken by around one and a half million people in some areas of Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. The total number of native speakers of the Slovak language is about 6 million people. Since Slovakia joined the EU, Slovak is also one of the official languages of the European Union.

Its structure is very similar to the Czech language and a number of characteristics are similar to Southern Slavic languages. Of all the Slavic languages, Slovak has the most in common with the Czech language. The languages are so similar, in fact, that Czechs and Slovaks can easily understand each other. This is why, within the Czech Republic, even at the official level, Slovak does not require translation. Nevertheless, the Slovak language is an independent language, and an interpreter is absolutely necessary if knowledge of German is insufficient, especially at appointments with the authorities in Germany. The interpreter’s or translator’s qualification and experience are obviously the top priority here. That’s why we at AP Fachübersetzungen only work with Slovak translators and specialist interpreters who meet our high quality requirements and have many years of experience. We will find the suitable language mediator for you – very easily and quickly.

In the case of certified translations, we only use reliable, publicly appointed and sworn Slovak translators for public documents. Our best and friendly court, consecutive, liaison, conference and simultaneous interpreters will be pleased to support you. With us, your interpreting and translation projects are in the best of hands.

Slavic tribes settled in the territories of present-day Slovakia in the 6^th century. At the same time, the phonological differentiation within the Proto-Slavic language began. Up to 862 AD, the official language in the administrative and ecclesiastical spheres was Latin. It was later replaced by Old Church Slavonic. Nevertheless, the Latin language did not disappear and was used as well alongside Old Church Slavonic.

In 885 AD, the Pope banned the use of Old Church Slavonic and, subsequently, the Slovak language in Great Moravia. This event initiated a revival of the Latin language, which formed the basis of administrative and ecclesiastical affairs.

After the Hungarians (Magyar) had destroyed Great Moravia, the Slovak language developed in the 10^th century out of a conglomerate of Slavic dialects that were widespread in the territory of present-day Hungary. While, within the official spheres in Slovakia, Slovak and Latin were used, along with some Slovak dialects. Czech started to seep into religious affairs in Slovakia, helped along by the Czech clergy. Nevertheless, the Slovak language was common in everyday life.

More and more, people wanted to standardize the Slovak language. In the 18^th century, Anton Bernolák, a Catholic priest, took the Western Slovak dialects as the basis for the codification of the Slovak language. Bernolák‘s Gramatica Slavica is considered to be the first successful standardization of the Slovak language.

After the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867, the Hungarian government closed the Slovak schools in its territory and the status of the Slovak language became precarious.

With the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the Slovak language was saved from possible extinction, and for the first time in history became an official language, along with Czech.

The Slovak alphabet consists of the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet plus 20 special characters or diacritics (e.g. ň and ž) and thus comprises 46 letters altogether.

As in German, nouns in Slovak are distinguished according to gender, case and number. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, numerals and verbs have to be inflected both in German and in Slovak. The Slovak language, like the German language, has three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). However, there are only four cases in German, whereas there are six in Slovak.

Like most Slavic languages, Slovak does not have articles, while German has three. Although adjectives come before the noun in Slovak, as well as in German and English, adjectives in the Slovak language can also be possessive, a form that does not exist in neither German nor English. In such a case, the Slovak translator has to paraphrase this form using other constructions, e.g. a genitive.

Due to these particularities of the Slovak language, it is advisable to entrust the translation of your specialist texts or interpretation to a native speaker or very experienced language expert. Therefore, at AP Fachübersetzungen we work exclusively with certified and experienced specialist Slovakian translators and interpreters and can thus guarantee the high quality and accuracy of your Slovak translation.