Mentalnościowy i lingwistyczny „obraz sąsiada” oraz jego odbicie w polsko-czeskich i czesko-polskich stereotypach językowych

Abstract

Stereotypes, including national ones, have been thoroughly researched in terms of psychology, sociology, history and politics, and also go in-depth through culture with its ethnography, literature and language. The beginning of studies into stereotypes dates back to the 1920s. The following study presents Polish-Czech and Czech-Polish stereotypes as historical, cultural and linguistic phenomena, and it also characterises understanding of one another’s language amongst Slavs? Then a theoretical matter is considered, that of false lexical items, to finally arrive at the appearance of hetero-stereotypes. The “false mirror” of language is universal: for the average Pole the language of the “brothers” from the south has made the Poles laugh in the past and it still does. It is of interest that, for the Czechs the Polish language is a source of amusement as well. There is a belief that the Czech language sounds like old Polish, and a more widespread view that Czech is a language of children, for the Czechs speak using diminutives. Poles on the other hand are said to speak through their noses, or to speak like geese as a result of the Polish vocalic system.