ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates efforts to reduce spelling variation in communist-era Czech. I track the origins of efforts to simplify and rationalize Czech spelling and consider their basis in an ideology that ultimately prioritized uniformity over individual expressivity. To examine the effect of implementing spelling reform in various periods before, during, and after communism, I use examples of how borrowed words were adapted to Czech spelling conventions. These fall into four categories: removal of superfluous diagraphs such as th-; removal of superfluous doubled consonants; introduction of marked final vowel length; and replacement of -s- with -z- in various positions. Data from the DIAKON corpus of diachronic Czech and the card file of the Reference Dictionary of Literary Czech suggest that, contrary to what early functionalists suggested would happen, the fate of specific orthographic changes has depended on means of social control rather than on the functionality of the proposed change.
