Čeština pohledem jazykových influencerů
The Czech language through the eyes of language influencers

Summary/Abstract: The emergence and spread of social media made it possible for a large number of language users to enter into various metalinguistic interactions, including those previously controlled predominantly by language experts. An example of this is what we call language influencers, i.e. users who write posts about the Czech language and its usage. While such users lack an institutional authority, their activity has a substantially large reach and they can thus interact with language users in lieu of traditional linguistic authorities. We present a first characterization of the activities and topics of such profiles. We analyzed 312 posts of the profiles Červená propiska (Instagram), Češtinářské špeky (Facebook), and Jazykovědma (Twitter/X) with regards to the topics of their posts and user engagement in terms of numbers of comments and likes. Whereas Červená propiska is concerned primarily with orthographic rules and the use of correct (i.e. standard Czech) variants, the other two profiles combine such language-management posts with edutainment in the form of fun facts, typically opaque etymologies. The most liked posts have such edutainment form, while the most commented posts discuss language problems which regular users have direct experience with. We interpret the activities of these profiles as representing an alternative to the official language regulator, while implicitly spreading and strengthening the standard language ideology.

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