Indo-European · ISO 639-3 slk · sk
Slovak Language slovenčina
Slovak is an Indo-European language spoken by about 6.0 million people in 4 countries. It is an official language of Slovakia. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Slovak is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Slovak
About the Slovak language
Slovak (slovenčina) is spoken by about 6.0 million people, which makes it the 165th most spoken language in the world — just behind Lambadi (6.0 million) and ahead of Tswana (6.0 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Czech-Slovak group within the Balto-Slavic branch.
Where is Slovak spoken?
Slovak is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in Slovakia (5.0 million), Czechia (1.7 million), Serbia (56,543) and Hungary (11,826). More than half of the population speaks it in Slovakia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Slovak: Slovakia 90% (5.0 million), Czechia 16% (1.7 million), Serbia 0.9% (56,543) and Hungary 0.1% (11,826).
Slovak is an official language in 1 country: Slovakia. It also has regional official status in Serbia.
Writing system and status
Slovak is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Czech, Polish, Kashubian, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 sk, ISO 639-3 slk.
Frequently asked questions about Slovak
How many people speak Slovak?
Where is Slovak spoken?
In which countries is Slovak an official language?
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What is Slovak called in Slovak?
Is Slovak an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.