As two Slavic languages, Bulgarian and Slovak descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, descending from earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language. There are over 20 different Slavic languages, divided into 3 major subgroups, with Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian belonging to the East group, Polish, Czech and Slovak to the West group, and Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian to the South group.

In today’s language challenge, we will compare some of the similarities between these two Slavic languages, with Aneliya (Bulgarian speaker) and Linda (Slovak speaker) challenging each other with a list of words and sentences.

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Slovak (slovenčina / slovenský jazyk) is a West Slavic language. Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, and is also native to the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and a portion of western Ukraine.

Bulgarian (български) is the official language of Bulgaria and recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Albania, and Romania.

Both languages have a rich literary tradition. Bulgarian literature is one of the oldest among the Slavic peoples, going back to the times of Simeon I of the First Bulgarian Empire. The reign of Simeon I was a period of immense cultural prosperity and enlightenment, which later became known as the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture. Among the many great Bulgarian poets and writers there are Hristo Botev (Христо Ботев), considered a national hero by Bulgarians, who wrote many notable poems such as Обесването на Васил Левски "Obesvaneto na Vasil Levski" (The Hanging of Vasil Levski), Моята молитва "Moyata molitva" (My Prayer), Хайдути "Hayduti" (Hajduks), and many others; Ivan Vazov (Иван Вазов), often referred to as "the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature"; Stefan Stambolov (Стефан Стамболов), who also served as the 9th Prime Minister of Bulgaria; Nikola Vaptsarov (Никола Вапцаров); Grigor Parlichev (Григор Пърличев); Peyo Yavorov (Пейо Крачолов); Geo Milev; Pencho Slaveykov (Пенчо Славейков); Dora Gabe and Elisaveta Bagryana, who are considered first ladies of Bulgarian women's literature; and many others.

Slovak literature has a very long history behind it. Among numerous Slovak poets and writers there are Pavel Jozef Šafárik, Ľudovít Velislav Štúr, Ján Kollár, Vladimír "Vlado" Clementis, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Margita Figuli, Ján Hollý, Andrej Sládkovič, and countless others.