Slovak

The Slovaks are the West Slavic people of northern Hungary, whose language is closest to Czech. In the early ninth century Pribina's Principality of Nitra merged into Great Moravia; Cyril and Methodius preached in Slavonic from 863 and devised the Glagolitic script, until the Magyars overran the realm around 907.

Slovak lands were later called Upper Hungary. The Mongol invasion of 1241–1242 depopulated valleys, though Trenčín castle held out; kings revived the region with towns and settlers. In 1381 the Privilegium pro Slavis gave Slavs half the seats on Žilina's council.

After the Ottoman conquest of Buda in 1541 the region became the heart of Habsburg Royal Hungary: Pressburg served as capital and coronation city from 1536 to 1784. In the 1780s the priest Anton Bernolák codified the first standard Slovak on the western dialects.