Slovak is the official language of The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakia). Slovak is spoken by over 7 million people in total. But Slovakia has only a population of five million people. That means that Slovak also is spoken as a minority language in other countries, i.e. the United States (1,200,000 Slovak speakers), the Czech Republic (350,000 Slovak speakers), Hungary (110,000 Slovak speakers ), Serbia (60,000 Slovak speakers), Ireland (30,000 Slovak speakers), Romania (22,000 Slovak speakers), Bulgaria (20,000 Slovak speakers), Poland (20,000 Slovak speakers), Canada (20,000 Slovak speakers).
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the so called phonemic principle, "Write as you hear".
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