A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them As it is usually the form promoted in schools and the media, it is usually considered by speakers of the language to be more "correct" in some sense than other dialects.
Usually, but not always, based on the tongue of a capital city, a standard language is defined by the selection of certain regional and class markers, and the rejection of others. This is the version of a language that is typically taught to learners of the language as a foreign language, and most texts written in that language follow its spelling and grammar norms. A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan. Spelling is the Writing of a Word or words with the necessary letters and Diacritics present in an accepted standard order Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Social norms have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values beliefs attitudes and behaviors
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Features
Some of the features that identify a standard language include:
- A recognized dictionary or group of dictionaries which embody a standardized spelling and vocabulary;
- A recognized grammar which records the forms, rules and structures of the language, and which commends some forms and castigates others;
- A standard system of pronunciation, which is considered "educated" or "proper" speech by the speakers, and which is considered free from regional marking;
- An institution promoting the use of the language and given some authority in defining the norms of its use, such as the Académie française or the Royal Spanish Academy;
- Statutes or constitutions giving that language an official legal status in a country's system of law;
- The use of the language in public life, such as in the work of courts and legislatures;
- A canon of literature;
- Translations of important sacred texts such as the Bible into that language, which are considered to be authoritative by their believers;
- The teaching of the language's standards of grammar and spelling in schools;
- The selection of this particular dialect of a language as being especially appropriate to be taught to learners of foreign languages. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing L'Académie française, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Real Academia Española (“Royal Spanish Academy” the RAE, is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language A statute is a formal written enactment of a Legislative authority that governs a Country, State, City, or County. A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society A court is a forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour administrative and criminal Justice under its A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin A school (from Greek σχολεῖον - scholeion) is an Institution designed to allow and encourage Students (or "pupils"
The creation of a standard language represents the triumph of a certain variety of linguistic prescription; its selection means that the speech of areas with features that vary from the standard so upheld are devalued or "deprecated. In Linguistics, prescription can refer both to the codification and the enforcement of rules governing how a language is to be used In Computer software standards and documentation the term deprecation is applied to Software features that are superseded and should be avoided " This means that in some countries, the selection of a standard language is a social and political issue. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions The act of seeking to define a language standard can be an act of nationalism or support of political devolution. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a State to government at subnational level
Examples
In Norwegian, for example, two parallel standard languages exist, one called Bokmål, based partly on the local pronunciation of Danish back when Norway was ruled by Denmark; and a second, called Nynorsk, based on a comparison of different Norwegian dialects. Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe While Italian contains dialects that vary from each other even more than the two versions of Norwegian do, there remains a single standard Italian; curiously, standard Italian is not based on the speech of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of Florence and the surrounding province of Tuscany: the massive influence Florentines had on early Italian literature (the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri is the greatest example) caused Italian to standardize around that dialect. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Tuscany (Toscana is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22990 km² and a population of about 3 The Divine Comedy In Spain, Standard Spanish is likewise not based on the speech of Madrid, but on that of the more northerly province of Valladolid. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Madrid (pronounced in English in Spanish and colloquially in Spain) is the Capital and largest city of Spain. Valladolid is a province of central/northwest Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. Uruguay.(official full name in República Oriental del Uruguay;, Oriental Republic of Uruguay) is a country located in the southeastern part of South America Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is geographically located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern Montevideo (monteβi'ðeo is the largest city the capital and chief port of Uruguay. This is known as Rioplatense Spanish, distinguishable from other standards of Spanish by the greater use of the voseo. Rioplatense Spanish ( Spanish: Español rioplatense, although locally known as castellano rioplatense In Spanish, voseo is the use of the second person singular Pronoun vos instead of tú.
Standard German is not based on a specific city or region but was developed over a process of several hundred years, in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest area. Standard German ( German: Hochdeutsch) is the standard varieties of the German language used as a Written language, in formal contexts Until about 1800 Standard German was almost entirely a written language. In this time, people in northern Germany, who spoke Low German dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Low German or Low Saxon (in Germany: Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch; in Netherlands: Nedersaksisch or Nederduuts Later the Northern pronunciation was considered standard and spread southward; in some regions (such as around Hanover) the local dialect completely died out. Hanover (i ( haˈnoːfɐ on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony ( Niedersachsen
The basic structure and words in standard Finnish (yleiskieli) are largely based on Western Finnish dialects. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside One reason is that Mikael Agricola, who conceived the written language in the 1500s, was from Turku, the regional centre at the time. Mikael Agricola ( (c 1510 &ndash April 9, 1557) was a Finnish clergyman who became de facto founder of written Finnish and Turku, in Swedish Åbo ( pronounced,) is a city and the original capital of Finland on the southwest coast of Finland at the However, the language was consciously developed further to become a fusion of dialects and a "logical" language for "proper" written text. One aim was national unification, in accordance to the nationalistic principle. Another was regularity and consistency, even if it goes against the general usage. For example, ruoka becomes ruoan in standard language, when the pronunciation is usually ruuan.
The Chinese language comprises a wide variety of spoken variants known as fangyan (Chinese: 方言). Spoken Chinese ( comprises many regional variants the largest of which are Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, and Min. Among all the variants, Standard Mandarin has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) the Republic of Singapore. Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Singapore This standard form is named as Putonghua (普通话, lit. common speech) by the PRC, Guoyu (國語), lit. national language) by the ROC, and Huayu (华语, lit. Chinese language) by Singapore. Pronunciations of Standard Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while grammar and syntax is based on modern vernacular Chinese. Beijing dialect ( is the Dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. Vernacular Chinese is a style or register of the Written Chinese Language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with
The Arabic language contains many varieties, many of them mutually unintelligible, but they are treated as a single language as the standard register of Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, is generally mutually intelligible with all dialects. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety It is not based on the dialect of any specific region but rather that of a specific time period: Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, which is the refined form of the vernacular in the time of Muhammad (7th century CE), with modifications. Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics The 7th century is the period from 601 to 700 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era.
In South Asia, two standardized dialects of the Hindustani language are given official status: Hindi, one of the official languages of India (in addition to 22 other official languages); and Urdu, the official national language of Pakistan as well as an official regional language in India. Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी ہندوستانی Hindustānī, hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː also known as " Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Urdu ( ur '''{{Nastaliq اردو}}''' trans Urdū, historically spelled Ordu) is a Central Indo-Aryan language Urdu is a standardised Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and As a result, Hindustani is often referred to as "Hindi-Urdu. "
Portuguese has two official written standards, respectively Brazilian Portuguese (used chiefly in Brazil) and European Portuguese (used in Portugal and its former African colonies, e. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Brazilian Portuguese ( Language code pt-BR Portuguese: português brasileiro or português do Brasil) is a group of Portuguese |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld European Portuguese (português europeu in Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects spoken mainly in Portugal but also in places of Africa and Asia Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. g. Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe). Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola Pronounced ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈgɔlɐ Repubilika ya Ngola is a country in south-central The Republic of Cape Verde ( Portuguese: Cabo Verde, 'kabu 'veɾdɨ is a Republic located on an Archipelago in the Macaronesia The Republic of Guinea-Bissau (ˈgɪni bɨˈsaʊ República da Guiné-Bissau ʁɛˈpublikɐ dɐ giˈnɛ biˈsau is a country in Western Africa, and one of the smallest Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Moçambique or República de Moçambique, ʁɛ'publikɐ d musɐ̃'bik is a country in southeastern Africa São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an Island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial The two written standards differ slightly in spelling and vocabulary and are regulated by law in their respective jurisdictions. Contrary to the written language however, there is no universally accepted or officially recognized standard for spoken Portuguese. The educated speech of Lisbon serves as a reference though for the proper pronunciation of European Portuguese. Lisbon (Lisboa liʒˈboɐ is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. In Brazil, actors and journalists of national radio stations and TV channels usually adopt an unofficial standard for spoken Portuguese which becomes a "de facto" standard; this used to be the urban middle-class dialect of the city of Rio de Janeiro, but today it can be considered a mix of different educated urban southeastern pronunciations. Rio de Janeiro ("River of January" ˈhiw dʒi ʒʌˈnejɾu in Brazilian Portuguese, /ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛroʊ/ in English is the second largest city of Brazil In this standard, <s> represents the phoneme /s/ when it appears at the end of a syllable (while in Rio de Janeiro this represents /ʃ/) the rhotic consonant spelled <r> is pronounced [x] in the same situation (while in São Paulo this is usually an alveolar trill). Rhotic consonants, or "R"-like sounds are non-lateral Liquid consonants This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically though most of them share São Paulo ( is the largest city in Brazil, with its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world The alveolar trill is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental European and African dialects have differing realizations of /ʁ/ than Brazilian dialects, with the former using [ʁ] and [r] and the latter using [x], [h], or [χ]. [1] Between vowels, <r> represents /ɾ/ for most dialects.
Other standard languages present fewer complicating factors. The pre-eminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of recent French literature. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people In British English, the standard Received Pronunciation is based on the language of the upper classes in the London area, and is based on the sociolect that comes out of the British private boarding schools. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Received Pronunciation ( RP) is a form of Pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as Is a concept in Sociology that refers to the group of people at the top of a Social hierarchy. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. In Linguistics, a sociolect is the variety of language characteristic of a social background or status An independent school in the United Kingdom is a school relying upon private sources for all of its funding predominantly in the form of school fees
In the United States, there are variations of American English throughout but the General American accent is considered unofficially standard because it is perceived as accentless by most Americans; it is based on Midwestern English and is closest to the accent of Omaha, Nebraska. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. General American is an accent of American English within American English General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and
While the United States federal government has no official language, many U.S. states and territories have designated English as the official state language, and six jurisdictions (Louisiana, New Mexico, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa) recognize English as an additional language. The federal government of the United States is the central United States Governmental body established by the United States Constitution. A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government United States territory is any extent of Region under the Jurisdiction of the federal Government of the United States, including all The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} Guam ( Chamorro: cha Guåhån) officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized unincorporated American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast The Northern Mariana Islands are officially trilingual. The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI is a commonwealth in Political union with the United
List of standard languages and regulators
- Further information: List of language regulators
See also
- Official language
- National language
- Literary language
- Classical language
- Ausbausprache
- Dialect continuum
- Pluricentric language
- Orthography
- Koiné language
References
- ^ Mateus, Maria Helena & d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000) The Phonology of Portuguese ISBN 0-19-823581-X (Excerpt from Google Books)
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