A Circum-Pannonian Word-Prosodic Parallel: Paroxytonic Accent in the South-West Bohemian Dialect

Abstract

Slavists generally think of the Czecho-Slovak dialect area as having a wordprosody configuration of fixed word-initial stress with contrastive length possible in any syllable. A notable exception is the Silesian dialect area, which typically has the Polish configuration with fixed penultimate stress and no contrastive length. Much less familiar is a small area in SW Bohemia (Pilsen, České Budějovice and environs) with what has been termed “paroxytonic stress” and contrastive length, which at first blush may be considered akin to the Silesian configuration.