Sociálně motivované variování výslovnosti cizích slov

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study on loanword pronunciation in Czech, focusing in particular on the impact of four primary independent variables (age, sex, education, and region of origin, i.e. Prague / Brno) on loanword pronunciation. The results were obtained from an empirical study undertaken in 2014, in which 300 native speakers of Czech were recorded reading 300 loanwords in short sentences. The social categories of the sample correlate proportionally with those of the inhabitants of both cities, according to the latest census. Age and education were identified as the variables associated with the highest degree of variation in the pronunciation of the loanwords studied. Knowledge of English, now a compulsory school subject in the Czech Republic, has a clear impact on pronunciation; however, the influence of the other factors on variation across social categories was also detected.