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The paper deals with the standardization process of the regnal name of the new King Charles III in Czech. It documents the fact that leading Czech internet media at first referred to the new king in the original form, Charles III, but very soon began to call him Karel III, using the Czech form of the English name Charles. The paper places this process into the broader context of translating foreign personal names into Czech and investigates whether European Monarchs are usually referred to by their original names or a translated form of their names in contemporary written Czech (as evidenced by the SYN corpus series). The central focus of the paper lies in the hour-by-hour detailed reconstruction of how it happened that the Czech internet media ceased quite suddenly to call the new king Charles III, beginning to call him Karel III. The paper proceeds to discuss this process in the context of language standardization theories, showing that although authorities (linguists, predominantly from the Czech Language Institute) explicitly refused to recommend ("from above") either the original, or a translated variant of the name, internet media representatives interpreted their statements in favour of the translated version and started to call the new king Karel III in Czech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study introduces OnomOs, a new corpus of Czech texts with annotation of proper names. The corpus was compiled by onomasticians from the Department of Czech Language, Faculty of Arts, University of Ostrava, and made available by the Institute of the Czech National Corpus, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. The paper briefly discusses the content and structure of the cor- pus, the selection of texts for inclusion, and the onomastic-geographical classification of the iden- tified names. The text consists chiefly of three preparatory analyses, which focus on the most fre- quent surnames, collocations found in Western and Eastern countries in the pre-1989 period, and the declension patterns of three types of onyms. In the summary, further possibilities of onomastic corpus research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term folk etymology is traditionally used to denote an erroneous, usually arbitrary connection of an etymologically opaque word to a word which is similar in the form or meaning but it is of different origin. Our approach is wider, we consider folk etymology as a part of folk linguistics. Folk (or also learned) etymology is one of the oldest methods of interpreting proper names and we can meet this phenomenon as early as in medieval chronicles. Folk interpretations often grow into size of etymological tales. They represent the period of the so-called pre-scientific etymology. However, folk etymology has not been replaced by scientific etymology, it is still alive and part of language users’ awareness. The term “folk etymology” was introduced by E. Förstemann in his paper Über deutsche Volksetymologie / About German Folk Etymology (1852) where he mentioned a whole range of examples for proper names. The term folk etymology coined by Förstemann was, despite some criticism, adopted into other languages including Czech. Three years later and independently of Förstemann, H. Wedgwood published a paper on what he called “false etymologies”. Similar terms actually appear in other lan)guages as well but they are considered problematic as they imply something improper. Folk etymology is sometimes treated as a non-scientific deformation of a language reality, as a misleading, deceptive preconception, which the educated scientists shall make sure to remove. F. de Saussure even supported the idea of folk etymology being something “pathological”. However, this opinion of his was frequently criticised. Nowadays, we do not perceive folk etymology as something wrong which is to be corrected. In our conception, the folk etymology is understood as a natural tendency of language users to explain foreign and opaque words as well as proper names, and to interpret, search and clarify the meaning connections even if these are not present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on the use of proper names in the articles of four Czech writers: Jan Neruda (1834–1891), Svatopluk Čech (1846–1908), Karel Čapek (1890–1938), and Karel Poláček (1892–1945), who reflected not only Czech culture and society, but also the Czech language. Given their avid interest in linguistics, the aim of this paper is to analyze the authors’ linguistic takes on proper names as reflected in their art journalism (essays, feuilletons, and columns). The present analysis focuses on their opinions of, for instance, naming of public spaces, personal names (and whether they use them stereotypically), misuse of proper names in politics, and naming in advertising. Their attitudes towards the naming strategy (seen as a linguistic strategy) are always examined in the context of the dominating linguistic views of the given period (the views on the language norms in particular), from approximately the 1850s until the 1930s. This approach, combined with a literary-cultural one, allows us to cover the issue comprehensively. The study is based on the chapter of the forthcoming dissertation Language and linguistic issues and their reflection in the works of selected Czech writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of Hindi/Urdu on Czech in advanced Hindi/Urdu L1 speakers of Czech as a second language. At present, dozens of Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers enroll in Czech language courses in India every year, and thousands of Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers live in the Czech Republic and have acquired Czech at various levels of proficiency. The objective of this paper is to provide first empirically based insights for teachers of Czech as a foreign/second language to Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers in India and in the Czech Republic. This study analyzes language production of 10 Hindi/Urdu L1 speakers who have lived long-term in the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on recordings of informal conversations. The obtained linguistic data was compared with standard grammar descriptions of Hindi/Urdu and Czech in order to perform error analysis. With the help of contrastive analysis, errors caused by language transfer were identified and categorized according to the following language domains: phonetics and phonology, and morphosyntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The contribution recapitulates and appraises the work of the Czech linguist Jiří Lípa (born December 12, 1928, Sušice, Czechoslovakia - died December 24, 2020, Broadview Heights, Ohio, USA). The first part is devoted to the beginnings of Lípa's interest in the Romani language and his publications from the period before he emigrated to the USA, including the two key monographs written in Czech, Příručka cikánštiny (A Handbook of the Gypsy Language, 1963) and Cikánština v jazykovém prostředí slovenském a českém (The Gypsy Language in the Czech and Slovak Linguistic Environment, 1965). The second part describes Lípa's work in the field of Roma studies in the USA, his participation in the activities of the Gyspy Lore Society and offers a commented review of his contributions written in English. Special attention is paid to two polemics triggered by Lípa's works. First, in 1983, in the Newsletter of the Gypsy Lore Society, and the second, a decade later, in 1993 in the Nationalities Papers. The author explains Lípa's stance in these polemics and shows that his position has been rather misunderstood and misinterpreted. The final section discusses why Lípa's pioneering work in the field of Roma studies has been mostly forgotten in his motherland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses 379 folk etymological interpretations and other 141 assumptions about the foreign origin of surnames, all received either by the radio programme On the Origin of Surnames, the Language Counselling Centre of the Czech Language Institute, or the information service Ask the Library. These inquiries were sent by the public along with requests for a confirmation of the suggested etymological interpre)tations of the surnames in question, or for an official (correct / scientific) explanation. The analysis shows that most often the folk etymology consists in erroneous decomposition of the name or in connecting the name with an incorrect original form, i.e. usually a familiar noun recognized in the name. The folk etymologies do not respect the word-forming structure of names. They also ignore the age and origin of the surname which they like to look for in foreign languages (especially in French, Polish, Hungarian), regardless of the origin of the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Speciální Pedagogika is the property of Charles University Prague, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Speciální Pedagogika is the property of Charles University Prague, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Personal proper names are part of a community's language inventory. To a large extent, they verbalise gender stereotypes, expectations and norms, power relations, political circumstances, and how minorities are treated. In my paper I analyse the current socioonomastic representation of gender-neutral names in the context of naming practices in the Czech Republic. More specifically, I examine what factors might explain the decreased use of these names, which, paradoxically, differ from other names in that they have an extended functionality. From a linguistic and legal perspective I inquire into how Czech naming practices stigmatise the sexual otherness of non-binary people and trans people in Czech society. In the conclusion I set out the conditions that must be met for gender-neutral names to be freely available to the entire population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal proper names are part of a community's language inventory. To a large extent, they verbalise gender stereotypes, expectations and norms, power relations, political circumstances, and how minorities are treated. In my paper I analyse the current socio-onomastic representation of gender-neutral names in the context of naming practices in the Czech Republic. More specifically, I examine what factors might explain the decreased use of these names, which, paradoxically, differ from other names in that they have an extended functionality. From a linguistic and legal perspective I inquire into how Czech naming practices stigmatise the sexual otherness of non-binary people and trans people in Czech society. In the conclusion I set out the conditions that must be met for gender-neutral names to be freely available to the entire population.