It is generally accepted that the present-day Slovak standard language was codified in its basic form in the mid 19th century by the Slovak scholar Ľudovít Štúr. A similar, but unsuccessful, attempt to create a standard Slovak language was made by Anton Bernolák in the late 18th century. There is not general agreement, however, on the degree or type of standardization, or better, normalization, exhibited by Slovak texts in the pre-codification period (15th-18th centuries). The present study outlines a new methodological framework for the investigation of the issue of standard language development in early pre-codification Slovak texts, providing selected phonological and morphological examples in illustration of this methodology.