Editing Slovak language (section)

==Dialects==
[[File:Slovak Dialects EN.jpg|thumb|Slovak dialects]]
[[File:Mother tongue ratio in Slovakia districts 2021.svg|thumb|Linguistic structure of Slovakia in 2021]]

There are many Slovak dialects, which are divided into the following four basic groups:
*[[Western Slovak dialects]] ([[Trenčín]], [[Trnava]], [[Nitra]], [[Záhorie]])
*[[Central Slovak dialects]] (in [[Liptov]], [[Orava (region)|Orava]], [[Turiec]], [[Tekov]], [[Hont County|Hont]], [[Nógrád County (former)|Novohrad]], [[Gemer]] and around [[Zvolen]].)
*[[Eastern Slovak dialects]] (in [[Spiš]], [[Šariš]], [[Zemplín (region)|Zemplín]] and [[Abov]])
*Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak dialects (outside Slovakia in the [[Pannonian Plain]] in Serbian [[Vojvodina]], and in southeastern [[Hungary]], western [[Romania]], and the Croatian part of [[Syrmia]])

The fourth group of dialects is often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western Slovak dialects (see e.g. Štolc, 1968), but it is currently undergoing changes due to contact with surrounding languages (Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, and Hungarian) and long-time geographical separation from Slovakia (see the studies in ''Zborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov'', e.g. Dudok, 1993).

The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary, and tonal inflection. Syntactic differences are minor. Central Slovak forms the basis of the present-day standard language. Not all dialects are fully mutually intelligible. It may be difficult for an inhabitant of the western Slovakia to understand a dialect from eastern Slovakia and the other way around.

The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges. The first three groups already existed in the 10th century. All of them are spoken by the Slovaks outside Slovakia, and central and western dialects form the basis of the lowland dialects (see above).

The western dialects contain features common with the Moravian dialects in the Czech Republic, the southern central dialects contain a few features common with South Slavic languages, and the eastern dialects a few features common with Polish and the East Slavonic languages (cf. Štolc, 1994). Lowland dialects share some words and [[areal feature]]s with the languages surrounding them (Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, and Romanian).