DEDINA – VES – SELO – DEREVNA V NÁREČIACH STARÝCH SLOVANOV

Research of historical linguistics and dialectology have a long existence and will always remain a part and means of national identification, especially when the search for national identity has support in the natural, uncontrolled development of language, and when it respects past experience. Semantic analysis of the vocabulary in the dialects of particular Slavonic languages, based on comprehensive regional analysis, as in the Slavic Linguistic Atlas project, testifies to the differentiating as well as integrative features of the examined items in relation to the surrounding linguistic environment. The author, using several illustrative examples, such as 'dedina' (village), 'strom' (tree), 'hora' (forest), points out the constants that are permanent identifying features of the Slovak language. They have become constituent parts of the contemporary standard Slovak language, in the course of natural development from a supra-dialect sphere in the pre-standard period.