One of the most active to raise Slovak national consciousness was Juraj Fandly (1750-1811), priest, writer and educationalist, who proclaimed belief in enlightenment with the words: "The time of enlightenment is upon us. Through language, writing and books, we shall strive to raise our nation, if not to the golden, at least to the silver, age."

Slovaks were conditioned to the idea of national independence through disputes with the Hungarians during the 18th century. This was the time when scholar-priests and writers focused their activities on language, culture and education.

A quarter of the Slovaks were Protestants, but the rest were mainly Catholics. Protestants used Czech as their liturgical and literary language interspersed with a few Slovak words. This was also the language of the first Slovak periodical - Prespurské noviny (Pressburg News), which first appeared in 1783. Protestants cultivated Czech and printed their works in that language.

Catholic Slovaks used Latin in the liturgy. In their sermons catholic priests would interlard various Slovak dialects, for there was no codified official or literary Slovak at that time. It was natural, therefore, that the notion of a codified official Slovak language should strike root among Slovak Catholics, in the two western Slovak towns of Bratislava and Trnava.