Filipa Rychterová

Thesis Title: The last acceptable prejudice: Attitudes to dialectal variation in the Czech Republic

In a society increasingly attuned to social inequality, language-based discrimination remains one of the last widely accepted prejudices (Lippi-Green, 2012). This project investigates public attitudes toward regional dialects and accents in the Czech Republic, where the national language is closely bound to both nation and state (Kamusella, 2009). Despite widespread awareness of bias against nonstandard varieties of Czech (Eckert, 1993), these attitudes have never been systematically explored.

Drawing on perceptual dialectology and folk linguistic methods (Preston, 2010), the research examines how language users in Czechia perceive dialectal variation, and how these perceptions reflect broader beliefs about status, belonging, and linguistic authority. It aims to test established direct elicitation techniques in a previously unstudied sociolinguistic context. Phase One uses a digital draw-a-map task, analysed in QGIS, to capture participants’ intuitive ideas about dialect geography and the cognitive and cultural salience of regional speech. Phase Two builds on these insights through a traditional questionnaire designed to elicit more explicit evaluations of Czech dialects and accents, linking spatial perceptions to social judgments.

By uncovering how dialectal attitudes are expressed, the project offers new insights into language-based bias and its role in social inequality, with relevance to education, media, and national discourse. It will also contribute to ongoing research on language attitudes and the comparative value of perceptual methods in sociolinguistic inquiry.

Biography:

Before starting my ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Birmingham, I completed a BSc in English Linguistics with Forensic Linguistics and an MA in Language, Culture and Communication. My work sits at the intersection of sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis, with a particular focus on national identity and transgression in music-based subcultures. My current research explores themes of fairness, representation, and the social impact of linguistic ideologies, contributing to broader conversations about identity, social inequality, and language policy. I’m especially interested in adapting Westerndeveloped analytical tools to fit local cultural and linguistic contexts, particularly within Czechia’s ethnolinguistic nationalism and its history of language standardisation. As I examine how language is used to uphold ideas of nationhood and belonging, I also enjoy noticing the everyday absurdities these ideologies produce, whether embedded in pop culture or overheard in conversations on trains.

Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham

2024 Cohort

Email:

Supervisory Team:

Dr Joe Spencer-Bennett

Dr Isobel Palmer