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Assignment Topic: Standard Language

Standard languages arise when a certain dialect begins to be used in writing over a broader area than the dialect itself. Prestige and use in administration, literature, and economic life leads to minimization of variation. Dictionaries, grammars, and institutions help stabilize norms. Standard languages are based on dialects of major cities or economic centers and incorporate elements of other dialects over time. While most people have command of the standard language, rural and lower social groups often maintain home dialects as well as using the standard more formally.

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45 views

Assignment Topic: Standard Language

Standard languages arise when a certain dialect begins to be used in writing over a broader area than the dialect itself. Prestige and use in administration, literature, and economic life leads to minimization of variation. Dictionaries, grammars, and institutions help stabilize norms. Standard languages are based on dialects of major cities or economic centers and incorporate elements of other dialects over time. While most people have command of the standard language, rural and lower social groups often maintain home dialects as well as using the standard more formally.

Uploaded by

Birmani Birmani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment Topic

Standard Language
Submitted by
Saima Mustafa

Submitted To
Sir Maqsood Rizvi

Subject
Sociolinguistics
Standard Languages

Standard languages arise when a certain dialect begins to be used in written form,


normally throughout a broader area than that of the dialect itself. The ways in which
this language is used—e.g., in administrative matters, literature, and economic life—lead
to the minimization of linguistic variation. The social prestige attached to the speech of
the richest, most powerful, and most highly educated members of a society transforms
their language into a model for others; it also contributes to the elimination of deviating
linguistic forms. Dictionaries and grammars help to stabilize linguistic norms, as do the
activity of scholarly institutions and, sometimes, governmental intervention. The base
dialect for a country’s standard language is very often the original dialect of the capital
and its environs—in France, Paris; in England, London; in Russia, Moscow. Or the base
may be a strong economic and cultural centre—in Italy, Florence. Or the language may be
a combination of several regional dialects, as are German and Polish.

Even a standard language that was originally based on one local dialect changes,
however, as elements of other dialects infiltrate into it over the years. The actual
development in any one linguistic area depends on historical events. Sometimes even the
distribution of standard languages may not correspond to the dialectal
situation. Dutch and Flemish dialects are a part of the Low German dialectal area, which
embraces all of northern Germany, as well as the Netherlands and part of Belgium. In one
part of the dialectal area, however, the standard language is based on High German, and
in the other part the standard language is Dutch or Flemish, depending on the nationality
of the respective populations. In the United States, where there is no clearly dominant
political or cultural centre—such as London or Paris—and where the territory is
enormous, the so-called standard language shows perceptible regional variations
in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. All standard languages are in any case
spoken in a variety of accents, though sometimes one particular accent (e.g., Received
Pronunciation in Britain) may be most closely associated with the standard because of its
shared social or educational origins.

In most developed countries, the majority of the population has an active (speaking,
writing) or at least passive (understanding) command of the standard language. Very
often the rural population, and not uncommonly the lower social strata of the urban
population as well, are in reality bidialectal. They speak their maternal dialect at home
and with friends and acquaintances in casual contacts, and they use the standard language
in more formal situations. Even the educated urban population in some regions uses the
so-called colloquial language informally. In the German-, Czech-, and Slovene-speaking
areas of middle Europe, for example, a basically regional dialect from which the most
striking local features have been eliminated is spoken. The use of this type of language is
supported by psychological factors, such as feelings of solidarity with a certain region and
pride in its traditions or the relaxed mood connected with informal behaviour.

Language standardization is the process by which conventional forms of a language are


established and maintained.

Standardization may occur as a natural development of a language in a speech


community or as an effort by members of a community to impose one dialect or variety as
a standard.
The term re-standardization refers to the ways in which a language may be reshaped by
its speakers and writers.
Observation
"The interaction of power, language, and reflections on language inextricably bound up
with one another in human history, largely defines language standardization."
Is Standardization Necessary?
"English, of course, developed a standard variety by relatively 'natural' means, over the
centuries, out of a kind of consensus, due to various social factors. For many newer
countries, though, the development of a standard language has had to take place fairly
rapidly, and government intervention has therefore been necessary. Standardization, it is
argued, is necessary in order to facilitate communications, to make possible the
establishment of an agreed orthography, and to provide a uniform form for school books.
(It is, of course, an open question as to how much, if any, standardization is really
required. It can be argued quite reasonably that there is no real point in standardizing to
the extent where, as is often the case in English-speaking communities, children spend
many hours learning to spell in an exactly uniform manner, where any spelling mistake is
the subject of opprobrium or ridicule, and where derivations from the standard are
interpreted as incontrovertible evidence of ignorance.)"
An Example of Standardization and Divergence: Latin
"For one important example of the push/pull between divergence and standardization--
and between vernacular language and writing--I'll summarize the Literacy Story... about
Charlemagne, Alcuin, and Latin. Latin didn't diverge much till the end of the Roman
empire in the fifth century, but then as it lived on as the spoken language throughout
Europe, it began to diverge somewhat into multiple 'Latins.' But when Charlemagne
conquered his huge kingdom in 800, he brought in Alcuin from England. Alcuin brought
in 'good Latin' because it came from books; it didn't have all the 'problems' that came
from a language being spoken as a native tongue. Charlemagne mandated it for his whole
empire.
The Creation and Enforcement of Language Standards
"Standardization is concerned with linguistic forms (corpus planning, i.e. selection and
codification) as well as the social and communicative functions of language (status
planning, i.e. implementation and elaboration). In addition, standard languages are also
discursive projects, and standardization processes are typically accompanied by the
development of specific discourse practices. These discourses emphasize the desirability
of uniformity and correctness in language use, the primacy of writing and the very idea of
a national language as the only legitimate language of the speech community..."

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