Slovak

Slovak, which became one of the official languages of the European Union in May 2004, is a young language. It is one of the West Slavic languages, like Czech and Polish, but also shares some characteristics with South and East Slavic languages.

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Its central position makes it something of an "Esperanto" of Slavic languages. This is due not only to linguistic influences, but also to intercultural contacts in central Europe in the past. For a very long time, Slovak developed under difficult conditions on the bangs of Latin, Hungarian and German (the official languages used on Slovak territory at the time) and Czech, which was once used as a cultural and religious language. It wasn't until the end of the 18th century, with Bernolák's reform, followed by Štúr's reform in the middle of the 19th century, that modern Slovak finally saw the light of day. In the 20th century, institutions such as the Slovak Linguistic Society (1941), the Bratislava Linguistic Circle (1945) and the Linguistic Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1943), which became the Ľ. Štúr as well as university research centers, notably at Bratislava's Comenius University, have made Slovak the subject of scientific study, propelling it to the ranks of modern European languages.

With the entry of the Slovak Republic into the European Union, Slovak has become one of Europe's official languages, its visibility is greater and it benefits from the European language policy that encourages cultural and linguistic diversity.

Inalco is the only French university establishment that offers complete training in Slovak.

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