Slovakia

Dear Joshua,

I'd like to suggest what I view as an important addition to your natlang
list, having lived and worked in this delightful country for two years
as a Peace Corps Volunteer:

Slovak Republic (separated from Czechoslovakia in 1993)
country name: Slovenska' republika ('=3D acute)
national language: slovenc^ina (^=3D hachek)
NB: Slovak is the official language, but Hungarian is widely spoken in
Southern Slovakia. There is also a sizable Roma ("gypsy") population.
Until the ethnic ravages and dislocations of WWII, Slovak, Czech,
German, Hungarian, Yiddish, Romany, and Ruthenian were all spoken in
Slovak territory.
Slovak person: slova'k (m), slovenka (f)
Slovak (adj): slovensky' (m), slovenska' (f), slovenske' (n)
pronunciation: the accent in Slovak always falls on the first syllable.
orthography: Czech was used as a literary language in Slovakia until the
19th century, when L'udovit S^tu'r definitively codified Slovak as a
written language.
etymology: The word "Slovak" is derived from the word for "Slavic"
(slovensky'=Slovak; slovansky'=Slavic). Slovak and Czech are distinct
but mutually intelligible languages. Slovak also has a close affinity to
Polish. According to the Slovaks themselves, Slovak is a good first
language from which to learn other Slavic languages such as Polish,
Serbian, and Russian.

--
Daniel J. O'Neil
M.S. Technical Communication
Instructor, Writing to the World Wide Web
Developer, Academy of Electronic Media
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
--
email: oneild@rpi.edu
home: http://www.rpi.edu/~oneild
WWWW: http://www.rpi.edu/~oneild/wwww