Moravians in Prague : a sociolinguistic study of dialect accommodation in the Czech Republic
The thesis reports on the linguistic accommodation of 39 university students from Moravia (the eastern half of the Czech Republic) living in Prague, Bohemia (the western part of the Czech Republic). In Bohemia, the informants' highly-localized native dialects and Standard Czech (SC) - a semi-artificial, archaic and primarily nonspoken standard with no native speakers - are both stigmatized, although for different reasons. Consequently, it has been 'hypothesized' that speakers of Moravian dialects living in Bohemia quickly reduce the frequency of or avoid stigmatized variants of their localized vernaculars and converge towards the host dialect, Common Czech (CC). Although a non-standard variety, CC is a semi-prestigious koine that is socially unrestricted throughout Bohemia and parts of western Moravia and is, according to some linguists, assuming the role of a national vernacular. However, the 'contact hypothesis' is based solely on introspective data and is ideologically driven, insomuch as it is the product of linguists who promote the social and geographical spread of CC. The present study is the first attempt to systematically describe the results of dialect contact between speakers of CC and Moravian
Wilson, James
Moravians in Prague : a sociolinguistic study of dialect accommodation in the Czech Republic. The thesis reports on the linguistic accommodation of 39 university students from Moravia (the eastern half of the Czech Republic) living in Prague, Bohemia (the western part of the Czech Republic). In Bohemia, the informants' highly-localized native dialects and Standard Czech (SC) - a semi-artificial, archaic and primarily nonspoken standard with no native speakers - are both stigmatized, although for different reasons. Consequently, it has been 'hypothesized' that speakers of Moravian dialects living in Bohemia quickly reduce the frequency of or avoid stigmatized variants of their localized vernaculars and converge towards the host dialect, Common Czech (CC). Although a non-standard variety, CC is a semi-prestigious koine that is socially unrestricted throughout Bohemia and parts of western Moravia and is, according to some linguists, assuming the role of a national vernacular. However, the 'contact hypothesis' is based solely on introspective data and is ideologically driven, insomuch as it is the product of linguists who promote the social and geographical spread of CC. The present study is the first attempt to systematically describe the results of dialect contact between speakers of CC and Moravian
prague sociolinguistic_study dialect accommodation czech republic report linguistic accommodation university_student eastern half czech republic live prague western part czech republic informant highly localized native dialect standard czech semi artificial archaic primarily standard native_speaker although different reason consequently speaker dialect live quickly reduce frequency avoid variant localized vernacular converge towards host dialect common czech although non_standard variety semi prestigious socially unrestricted throughout part western accord linguist assume role national vernacular however contact hypothesis base solely introspective data ideologically drive product linguist promote social geographical spread present_study first_attempt systematically describe dialect_contact speaker