EN
The notion of the Slovak language includes all its partial constituents, i. e. all Slovak dialects that make up a linguistic continuum characterized by the essential common features which constitute the fundamental unity of the language. Therefore the language Frank Sakalsky spoke was Slovak, although at the time of his emigration from Eastern Slovakia to America in 1882 he knew only one constituent of the Slovak language, i. e. his native East Slovak dialect. This dialect that he spoke in America is spontaneously referred to him as Slovak and he constantly claims to be Slovak himself. The Slovak linguistic continuum, deeply rooted in the past, is the result of an ancient ethnic integration.