Jan Stanislav Institute of Slavistics SAS
Topic
The Development of Slovak Language in The Context of The Current Status of Reconstruction of Proto-Slavic
PhD. program
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
dr. sc. Siniša Habijanec, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre
Annotation
The subject of the work is the analysis of a selected aspect of the development of the phonological or morphological system of Slovak language in the context of current knowledge about the structure of Proto-Slavic. Despite the significant progress in clarifying the origin and development of Slovak language achieved in the 20th century, several interpretations and solutions of meritorious researchers (J. Stanislav, Ľ. Novák, E. Pauliny, R. Krajčovič) appear to be insufficiently convincing or untenable when confronted with current knowledge of historical-comparative Slavic linguistics and the resulting reconstruction of Proto-Slavic, research on Slavic migrations and the theory of language change.
The basic method is a confrontational analysis of the basic works of Slovak historical linguistics and current theoretical-methodological works of historical linguistics applied to Slovak language material, with emphasis on those aspects of development that, when applying newer knowledge, will acquire innovative explanations of the analysed phenomena. The specific area of the language system that will be the subject of the work will be agreed with the applicant based on his/her knowledge and interests. The aim of the work is to re-evaluate some existing concepts of the development of Slovak language - those to which newer knowledge is applicable. Another aim is the applicant's acquisition of the methods and basic postulates of historical-comparative linguistics, developing the ability to perceive language in a diachronic perspective and reconstruct the proto-linguistic state based on a comparison of Slovak with selected Slavic languages.
The basic method is a confrontational analysis of the basic works of Slovak historical linguistics and current theoretical-methodological works of historical linguistics applied to Slovak language material, with emphasis on those aspects of development that, when applying newer knowledge, will acquire innovative explanations of the analysed phenomena. The specific area of the language system that will be the subject of the work will be agreed with the applicant based on his/her knowledge and interests. The aim of the work is to re-evaluate some existing concepts of the development of Slovak language - those to which newer knowledge is applicable. Another aim is the applicant's acquisition of the methods and basic postulates of historical-comparative linguistics, developing the ability to perceive language in a diachronic perspective and reconstruct the proto-linguistic state based on a comparison of Slovak with selected Slavic languages.