Standard Language

The concept of the Standard Language was first explicitly developed by linguists of the so-called Prague school, who characterized it as a codified form of language accepted by and serving as a model for a larger speech community.

The most important features of ‘the Standard’ are its flexible stability and intellectualization. According to Dittmar the Standard has 4 functions:

1. unifying (domination and control of various dialect areas)

2. separating (clear demarcation from other languages)

3. prestige

4. normative frames of correctness.

Sociolinguists believe that a typical Standard language will have passed through the following processes:

• Selection. A particular variety must have been selected as one to be developed into a Standard language.

• Codification. Some agency or Academy must have written dictionaries and grammar books to ‘fix’ the variety.

• Elaboration of function. The selected variety must be possibly used in all the functions associated with the central government, and writing.

• Acceptance. This variety has to be accepted by the majority of the population as the variety of the community, or the national language.

STANDARD ENGLISH is a codified norm of the English language. SE is accepted throughout the English-using world. It is neither localized in its usage, nor has the single accent.

In the British Isles the generalized accent is known as RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION.

This term was introduced by the dialectologist Alexander Ellis over a hundred years ago. Received Pronunciation is recognized as a model for foreign learners of British English, being thought as typically English. Such an accent was ‘received’ in the social sense of being accepted. For it was spoken by the social groups of high status: the upper classes (THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH), lawyers, Oxbridge students etc. Even today RP enjoys considerable social prestige to the extent that some regional accents are judged ‘inferior’ in many ways even by their speakers.

Modern literary English is part of the national language. The latter comprises local dialects (territorial vernaculars) and social dialects (jargons). The literary English is a historically developed form of the national language serving the state, administrative and cultural needs of the nation (science, press, media) as well as the needs of everyday communication.

Modern English, as any other language, exists in two interacting functional variants: the bookish and the colloquial. Both variants may be found in written and in oral forms.

The English literary language was particularly regulated and formalized during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The 19^th and 20^th centuries with the spread of education and introduction of radio and television into daily life contributed much to the enrichment of the national language.

However, the standards of the literary language undergo gradual changes, develop and improve. There is no hard division between the literary and non-literary language. They are interdependent.