Slovak orthography — Safekipedia Adventurer

Slovak orthography is the way we write the Slovak language. It was first made by a Slovak Catholic priest, Anton Bernolák, in the late 1700s. His work helped decide how Slovak words would be written.

Today, the usual way to write Slovak comes from a system made by Ľudovít Štúr in 1844. It was changed later by Martin Hattala in 1851. This system uses a central Slovak dialect, spoken in the middle of Slovakia.

Since these changes in the 1800s, Slovak writing has stayed mostly the same. It helps all Slovak speakers write and read clearly. This makes it easier to share ideas and stories in writing. The Slovak language is used by many people in Slovakia and around the world.

Alphabet

The Slovak alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet and has 46 letters. It includes four special marks called diacritics: ˇ(mäkčeň), ´(acute accent), and ¨(diaeresis/umlaut). This makes it the longest alphabet in Slavic and European languages.

Some letter pairs, like ⟨ia⟩, ⟨ie⟩, and ⟨iu⟩, are used to show special sounds in Slovak words. These pairs work like diphthongs, which are mixes of vowel sounds in one syllable. In words from other languages, these pairs can sometimes stand for two separate vowel sounds.

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

Dž

Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

dž

Letter	Letter name	Pronunciation	Usual phonetic values	Morse code
A a	á	[aː]	[a]	▄ ▄▄▄
Á á	dlhé á	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈaː]	[aː]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
Ä ä	prehlasované á; a s dvoma bodkami; široké e	[ˈpreɦlasɔʋaneː ˈaː]; [ˈa z ˈdʋɔma ˈbɔtkami]; [ˈʂirɔkeː ˈe]	[ɛɐ]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
B b	bé	[beː]	[b], [p]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
C c	cé	[tseː]	[ts], [dz]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
Č č	čé	[tʂeː]	[tʂ], [dʐ]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄
D d	dé	[deː]	[d], [t], [ɟ]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄
Ď ď	ďé; mäkké dé	[ɟeː]; [ˈmɛɐkkeː ˈdeː]	[ɟ], [c]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
Dz dz	dzé	[dzeː]	[dz], [ts]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
Dž dž	džé	[dʐeː]	[dʐ], [tʂ]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
E e	é	[eː]	[e]	▄
É é	dlhé é	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈeː]	[eː]	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄
F f	ef	[ef]	[f], [v]	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
G g	gé	[ɡeː]	[ɡ], [k]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
H h	há	[ɦaː]	[ɦ], [x], [ɣ]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
Ch ch	chá	[xaː]	[x], [ɣ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
I i	í	[iː]	[i]	▄ ▄
Í í	dlhé í	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈiː]	[iː]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
J j	jé	[jeː]	[j]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
K k	ká	[kaː]	[k], [ɡ]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
L l	el	[el]	[l], [l̩]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄
Ĺ ĺ	dlhé el	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈel]	[l̩ː]	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
Ľ ľ	eľ; mäkké el	[eʎ]; [ˈmɛɐkkeː ˈel]	[ʎ]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
M m	em	[em]	[m], [ɱ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
N n	en	[en]	[n]	▄▄▄ ▄
Ň ň	eň	[eɲ]	[ɲ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
O o	o	[ɔ]	[ɔ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
Ó ó	ó; dlhé o	[ɔː]; [ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈɔ]	[ɔː]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
Ô ô	ô	[ʊɔ]	[ʊɔ]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄
P p	pé	[peː]	[p], [b]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
Q q	kvé	[kʋeː]	[kʋ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ / Occurs only in loanwords.
R r	er	[er]	[r], [r̩]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
Ŕ ŕ	dlhé er	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈer]	[r̩ː]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄
S s	es	[es]	[s], [z]	▄ ▄ ▄
Š š	eš	[eʂ]	[ʂ], [ʐ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
T t	té	[teː]	[t], [d], [c]	▄▄▄
Ť ť	ťé; mäkké té	[ceː]; [ˈmɛɐkkeː ˈteː]	[c], [ɟ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
U u	u	[u]	[u], [w]	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
Ú ú	dlhé ú	[ˈdl̩ɦeː ˈuː]	[uː]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
V v	vé	[ʋeː]	[ʋ], [w], [v], [f]	▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
W w	dvojité vé	[ˈdʋɔjiteː ˈʋeː]	[ʋ], [w], [v], [f]	▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ / Occurs only in loanwords.
X x	iks	[iks]	[ks]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ / Occurs only in loanwords.
Y y	ypsilon	[ˈipsilɔn]	[i]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄
Ý ý	dlhý ypsilon	[ˈdl̩ɦiː ˈipsilɔn]	[iː]	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄
Z z	zet	[zet]	[z], [s]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄
Ž ž	žet	[ʐet]	[ʐ], [ʂ]	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄

Sound–spelling correspondences

Slovak spelling has a few main rules. The most important rule is the phonemic principle. This means words are spelled based on how they sound. Another rule is the morphological principle. Words from the same root keep the same spelling, even if they sound different. For example, words that share the same root are spelled the same, even when their sounds change.

Foreign words often change to fit Slovak spelling over time. For example, "weekend" becomes víkend, and "software" becomes softvér. Personal and place names usually keep their original spelling. However, they may use a Slovak version, like Londýn for "London".

Some letters like e, i, í, ie, ia change the sounds of the letters D, N, T, and L that come before them. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as in some foreign words or special Slovak words like ten ("that") and jeden ("one").

Diacritics

The acute mark in Slovak, called "dĺžeň" or "lengthener," shows that a vowel is long. For example, í means a long "i" sound. This mark can be on many vowels but not on "ä." It can also be on the consonants "l" and "r" to show special long sounds.

Other marks include the circumflex, which appears above the letter "o" and changes its sound. The umlaut, with two dots above the letter "a," makes a special diphthong sound. The caron, or "mäkčeň," changes some consonants to softer or different sounds. It looks different when printed or handwritten.

Computer encoding

The Slovak alphabet is part of the ISO/IEC 8859-2 "Latin-2" encoding, which works well for Eastern European languages. The "Latin-1" encoding, used for Western European languages, does not have all the special Slovak letters.

Today, most people use Unicode, especially UTF-8, often with Windows systems like Windows-1250.