Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze linguistic factors which influence the usage of prothetic /v/ in speech of older speakers in Prague. The analysis is based on informal 1 hour long interviews with 17 speakers (9 women, 8 men) from Prague aged between 60 and 71 years.
All of the speakers were born in Prague and they lived there for most of their lives. Altogether, there are 2769 occurrences of the variable (v): 538 /phi/ and 2231 /v/.
It can be seen that the speakers in the sample prefer using the prothetic /v/. Based on a generalized linear mixed model, we show that the use of (v) is influenced by word frequency, presence of a prefix and borrowedness of the word.
Other variables do not fit in the model. If compared with older data by Jancak (1974) and the recent data on younger speakers from Prague by Chromy (2015), it can be seen that there is a change in progress in the use of (v) in Prague and that the prothetic /v/ seems to be on slow decline.