Theodisce wrote:I believe the professor was ridiculing certain attitudes (like relying on subjective feelings in making various life choices as opposed to more serious but not always emotionally attractive commitments) and he used the Prague (is there an English adjective for the city?) feature to further alienate his audience from the imagined person expressing that attitude or/and to discredit it in the eyes of his (most probably predominantly) Moravian students. Do you think it's plausible? BTW, if I'm not mistaken, this kind of diphthongisation is heavily employed in a series I watched some months ago (Kriminálka Anděl- I woudn't have watched it, had it not been a Czech series that I could easily access. I discovered the joy of TV series only recently and haven't yet gathered much experience regarding the language used in Czech series. I really regret Pustina was only a mini series).
Yes, this is certainly plausible. Moravians find the Prague dialect simply a symptom of stupidity of inhabitants of the capital city. But the rudest, most arrogant, and worst xxxx (can't remember any polite word for this) in Prague are usually among the newcomers. Typically a person who hates Prague till the day they move in, and hate the others from that day on
Kriminálka Anděl is located in Prague, so the diphtongisation is absolutely necessary there. We simply use it. This series is quite fun, even though definitely not a masterpiece. I watched it a few months ago. Too bad it ended after just four series, because it was one of the best examples of contemporary Czech series of this genre. And a few episodes were really good and original, but those were an exception.
If you want an excellent one, I recommend Kapitán Exner, which is new, the first season is now running. It is very different from most, as it is based on successful books by Václav Erben. The stories are adapted to our times (I don't know how old the books are, perhaps 40 years? 50?), but it is still very clear the stories are well thought out and the makers of the series tried to respect the author as much as possible. The actors (very good ones) will show you various registers of the language, especially as two out of three members of the main team are proud of looking well educated at all times. The third is a much more "regular" person, and uses -ej normally.
The rest of the characters comes from various social spheres, even though majority are intellectuals. The cases are put in very interesting locations, such as the Prague zoo, an archeology site, or an experimental faculty belonging to the army. The humour is very tasteful, both the dialogues and situations. I really should read the books. My mother is likely to have them in her collection of original Czech crime novels. I think one of the advantages of this series for learners is the clear sound in the dialogues. Some series, no matter where from, have very loud back noise, making it hard to understand. Not this one. The tempo of dialogues is natural, yet not too fast. The makers of this series had a clear intention to distinguish it from the modern CSI Miami type series (which Kriminálka Anděl takes some inspiration from), without this series being any less thrilling.
As we are talking about contemporary Czech crime series, I would like to warn you against Policie Modrava. The landscapes of the Šumava mountains are beautiful, but that's about it. Boring dialogues, boring crimes, boring characters. I watched half an episode, perhaps a whole one, I cannot even remember.
http://play.iprima.cz/kapitan-exnerI hope there is no region block.