English slipware dish by Thomas Toft of northern Staffordshire, c. 1680; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
COURTESY OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
sloth Nocturnal, solitary, tree-dwelling mammal (family Bradypodidae), found in South and Central America.
About 2 ft (60 cm) long, sloths have a tiny tail, peglike teeth, long curved claws, and long forelimbs. A green alga grows in the shaggy fur. The four species of three-toed sloths, or ais ( Bradypus ), eat only leaves of the trumpet tree. The two species of two¬ toed sloths, or unaus ( Choloepus ), have two toes on the forelimbs; they eat fruits, stems, and leaves of vari¬ ous plants. Sloths cannot walk. They cling upright to trunks, hang upside down (in which position they sleep some 15 hours a day), or move, extremely slowly (hence their name), by pulling hand over hand. Their natural camouflage is their chief pro¬ tection from predators.
Slovak \'slo-,vak\ language West Slavic language of Slovakia, spo¬ ken by about 5.6 million people there and in enclaves in the Czech Repub¬ lic, Hungary, northern Serbia, and North America. Slovak was virtually an unwritten language until the late 18th century, largely because of the long political domination of Slovakia by Hungary and the much earlier literary cultivation of Czech, Slovak’s western linguistic neighbour. Present-day literary Slovak was effectively consolidated by the 1850s on the basis of Central Slovak dialects.
Slovakia officially Slovak Republic Country, central Europe. Area: 18,933 sq mi (49,035 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 5,384,000. Capitaclass="underline" Bratislava. About nine-tenths of the population are Slovak; Hungarians
Three-toed sloth (Bradypus tridactylus)
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form the largest minority. Language: Slo¬ vak (official). Religion: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant, other Christians). Currency: Slovak koruna. The Carpathian Mountains dominate Slovakia, with lowlands in the southwestern and southeastern regions. The Morava and Danube rivers form parts of the southern and western borders. Grain, sugar beets, and vegetable crops are grown and pigs, sheep, and cattle are raised, but the economy is based on mining and manufacturing; there are substantial deposits of iron ore, copper, magnesite, lead, and zinc. Slova¬ kia is a republic with one legislative house; its chief of state is the presi¬ dent, and the head of government is the prime minister. Slovakia was inhabited in the first centuries ad by Illyrian, Celtic, and Germanic tribes.
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Slovaks settled there around the 6th century. It became part of Great Moravia in the 9th century but was conquered by the Magyars c. 907. It remained in the kingdom of Hungary until the end of World War I, when the Slovaks joined the Czechs to form the new state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. In 1938 Slovakia was declared an autonomous unit within Czechoslovakia; it was nominally independent under German protection from 1939 to 1945. After the expulsion of the Germans, Slovakia joined a reconstituted Czechoslovakia, which came under Soviet domination in 1948. The fall of the communist regime in 1989 led to a revival of inter¬ est in autonomy, and Slovakia became an independent nation in 1993. It joined both NATO and the European Union in 2004.
Slovene \'slo-,ven\ language or Slovenian language South Slavic language spoken by more than 2.2 million people in Slovenia, in adjacent parts of Italy, Austria, and Hungary, and in small enclaves out¬ side Europe. The oldest Slavic text in the Latin alphabet, the Freising Frag¬ ments (c. 1000), are written in a very early form of Slovene; the language is not attested again until the 16th century, when Lutheran reformers translated the Bible into Slovene. The language has a remarkable degree of dialect diversity considering the size of its speech area, probably enhanced by the country’s Alpine geography and long period of domina¬ tion by non-Slovene-speaking rulers.
Slovenia officially Republic of Slovenia Country, northwestern Balkans region, southern Europe. Area: 7,827 sq mi (20,273 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 1,999,000. Capitaclass="underline" Ljubljana. The vast majority of
the population is Slovene. Language: Slov¬ ene (official). Religion: Christianity (pre¬ dominantly Roman Catholic; also other Christians). Currency: Slovene tolar. Slov¬ enia is predominantly mountainous and
wooded, with deep, fertile valleys and numerous rivers. It is one of the more prosperous regions of the Balkans. Its economy is based largely on manufacturing; coal, lead, and zinc are mined, but forestry, livestock, and crops, including potatoes, grains, and fruits, are also important. Slovenia is a republic with two legislative houses; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. The Slovenes settled the region in the 6th century ad. In the 8th century it was incorporated into the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, and in the 10th century it came under Germany as part of the medieval empire (later the Holy Roman Empire). Except for the period from 1809 to 1813, when Napoleon ruled the area, most of the lands belonged to Austria until the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1918. Slovenia became a con¬ stituent republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and received a section of the former Italian Adriatic coastline in 1947. In 1990 Slovenia held the first contested
multiparty elections in Yugoslavia since before World War II. In 1991 Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia; its independence was internationally recognized in 1992.
slug Any species of gastropod that glides along on a broad tapered foot and has no shell or one that is merely an internal plate or a series of gran¬ ules. Most slugs use the mantle cavity (see mollusk) as a lung. Slugs have a soft, slimy body and live in moist habitats on land (except for one fresh¬ water species). All are hermaphroditic. In temperate regions, the common slugs eat fungi and decaying leaves. Some tropical species eat plants, and some European species eat other snails and earthworms. See also nudi- BRANCH.
slum Densely populated area of substandard housing, usually in a city, characterized by unsanitary conditions and social disorganization. Rapid industrialization in 19th-century Europe was accompanied by rapid popu¬ lation growth and the concentration of working-class people in over¬ crowded, poorly built housing. England passed the first legislation for building low-income housing to certain minimum standards in 1851; laws for slum clearance were first enacted in 1868. In the U.S., slum develop¬ ment coincided with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; laws concerning adequate ventilation, fire protection, and sanitation in urban housing were passed in the late 1800s. In the 20th century government and private organizations built low- income housing and appropriated funds for urban renewal and offered low-interest home loans. Shantytowns, which often grow up around urban centres in developing countries as rural populations migrate to the cities in search of employment, are one type of slum for which alleviating mea¬ sures have yet to be successfully introduced. See also urban panning.
slump, submarine See submarine slump
Sluter VsliE-torV Claus (b. c. 1340/50, Haarlem?, Holland—d. between Sept. 24, 1405, and Jan. 30, 1406,
Dijon, Burgundy) Early Netherland¬ ish sculptor. He entered the service of Philip II the Bold in 1385 and became his chief sculptor in 1389.