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SLOVAKS (Slovak, fern. Slovenka, adj....

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 245 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SLOVAKS (Slovak, See also:fern. Slovenka, adj. slovensk, formerly called Slovene, but to be distinguished from the See also:Slovenes of See also:Carinthia, in Magyar Tat) , a Slav See also:people numbering about 2,500,000 and mostly living in the See also:northern counties of See also:Hungary. On the See also:west they extend into the neighbouring districts of See also:Lower See also:Austria and See also:Moravia where they See also:march with the Germans and the kindred Moravians, being bounded by the See also:river Morava and the Jablunka Mountains; on the See also:north they See also:touch the Poles along the frontiers of See also:Silesia and See also:Galicia; on the See also:east about 22° E. they meet the Little Russians along an indented boundary; on the See also:south they have the See also:Magyars as neighbours along a See also:line joining See also:Pressburg and Zemplfn. Within these limits, See also:save for the Germans in the towns, the Slovaks are not much mixed: they have isolated settlements throughout the western See also:half of Hungary extending far enough south to meet similar settlements of Servians. Their See also:chief centre is S. Marton on the Turocz. The Slovaks seem to have occupied this territory in the 5th or 6th See also:century A.D. and 'also to have stretched far to the south; they formed See also:part of Samo's See also:empire (See also:middle of 7th century), but were subject to the See also:Avars and the See also:Franks, and then formed part of See also:Great Moravia until that See also:kingdom was in 907 conquered by the Magyars, who displaced or assimilated the See also:southern Slovaks and have ever since been lords of the See also:rest, save for a See also:short See also:time when they were under Boleslav the Brave (A.D. 973) Of See also:Poland, and See also:early in the 14th century when a See also:local See also:magnate,See also:Count See also:Matthew of Trencfn, made himself an See also:independent ruler. In 1848-1849, when the Magyars See also:rose against Austria, the Slovaks rose against the Magyars, but were handed back to them on the conclusion of See also:peace. The Magyars have always treated the Slovaks as an inferior See also:race and have succeeded in assimilating many districts where the prefix Tot in See also:place-names shows the former presence of Slovaks: those who take the Magyar See also:language and attitude are called IsiIagyarones. The Magyars, in pursuance of this policy, do their best to suppress the Slovak See also:nationality in every way, even to the extent of taking away Slovak See also:children to be brought up as Magyars, and denying them the right to use their language in See also:church and school. The result is a large See also:emigration to See also:America.

(See letters by Scotus Viator in Spectator, 1906 sqq.) The Slovaks are a peaceful, rather slow race of peasants (their See also:

aristocracy is Magyarized), living almost exclusively upon the See also:land, which they till after the most See also:primitive methods. Where this does not yield sufficient, they wander as labourers and especially as tinkers all over Austria-Hungary and even into South See also:Russia. They are fond of See also:music, and their songs have been collected. The Slovak language is most closely connected with Cech, the difference being bridged by the transitional dialects of Moravia: though See also:Miklosich has classed it as a variety of Cech, it is better to take it separately, since it has not been subjected to the See also:special changes which have in that language assimilated the vowels to the foregoing palatal consonants, nor See also:developed the s which is characteristic of the other North-Western See also:Slavonic See also:tongues, but .has remained in a more primitive See also:stage and preserved (as might be expected from its central position in the Slavonic See also:world) many points of agreement, phonetic, morphological and lexical, with South Slavonic and See also:Russian. The See also:alphabet is founded on the Cech, the See also:accent is always on the first syllable, See also:long vowels are indicated by acute accents. There are usually reckoned to be three See also:groups of dialects, Western, Central and Eastern; the first being nearest to Cech, the last to Little Russian; the Central dialects exhibit less decided features. The Slovak dialects spoken in Moravia have been well investigated by Bartos, the others still await satisfactory treatment, as does the question of the relation of Slovak to other Slavonic groups. From the time of the See also:Hussites and still more after the See also:Reformation, Cech missionaries, colonists and refugees had brought with them their See also:Bible and service books; Cech became the See also:literary language, and is still the church language of the Slovak Protestants. The use of the local See also:tongue was the result of a See also:desire on the part of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:clergy to get at their people. A. Bernolak (1762-1813), who first systematized the See also:orthography and made a See also:dictionary, taking Western Slovak as his basis, was a See also:priest, and so was See also:Jan See also:Holly (1785-1849), who wrote epics and odes in the classical See also:taste. A new start was made in the 'forties by L'udevit Stur, Josef Hurban and M.

Hodia who adopted the central See also:

dialect, See also:united the Catholic and See also:Protestant Slovaks in its use and successfully opposed the attempts to keep the Slovaks to the use of Cech. However,afarik the great Slavist and the poet Kollar continued to write in Cech, the See also:argument being that Slays should unite to oppose the enemies of the race: but without their language the Slovaks, having no traditions of independent See also:political See also:life, would have nothing to cling to. The chief Slovak writers since 5tur (mostly poets) have been O. Sladkovic, S. Chalupka, V. Paulin '-Tot, and at See also:present Orszag-Hviezdoslav and Svetozar Hurban-Vajansky. During the 'sixties the Slovaks founded three gymnasia and a Matica, or literary, linguistic and educational society, such as has been the centre of revival for the See also:national life of other Slavonic nations. These were all closed and their See also:property confiscated by the Magyars in the early 'seventies, but the struggle continues, and national self-consciousness is too strong for the attempts at Magyarization to have much See also:probability of success. (E. H.

End of Article: SLOVAKS (Slovak, fern. Slovenka, adj. slovensk, formerly called Slovene, but to be distinguished from the Slovenes of Carinthia, in Magyar Tat)

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Remarkably pro-Slovak article, reads like a propaganda leaflet of Matica.
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