Constituents with old information precede constituents with new information, or those that carry most emphasis. Slovak has six sets of long and short vowel phonemes, and a consonantal system of twenty-eight phonemes. It has distinctive palatalization. Voiced consonants at the end of words are devoiced. Two long syllables cannot occur consecutively.
Stress is invariably on the first syllable.
Slovak has borrowed extensively from Hungarian. Prior to the partition of Czechoslovakia, Slovak was influenced by Czech, in spite of efforts by purists to expunge such influences. Now with separate governments and societies, it is uncertain whether factors that played a role in the past to foster mutual intelligibility and convergence, such as mobility, open regional borders, a common media, and universal military obligations, will counteract other cultural and political variables that favor linguistic divergence. There is a very strong tradition of translating into Czech and Slovak. The literary tradition in Slovak, however, has historically been eclipsed by Czech, but this may change with political, social, and cultural viability of the new republic.