What is Standard English?

- Since the 1980's, the notion of 'standard' has come to debate.
- There has been debate in devising of an acceptable curriculum for English in primary and secondary education. 
- Standard English is a variety of English, with distinctive combinations of linguistic features. 
- Some people call it a 'dialect' of English 
- Has no local base
- Carries most prestige within a country
- English that people chose will become the standard in the community
- 'The English used by the powerful' James Sledd
- Used in leading institutions like the government, law courts and the media.
- Widely understood but not widely used
- Only a minority actually use it when they talk, others when they're at work or in a professional encironment
- Speak a variety of regional English 
- 'BBC English' or 'the Queen's English' perceived as 'pure' Standard English

• A totally unifrom, regionally neutral and unarguably prestigious variety does not yet exist
• New Zealanders do not want to sound like Australians
• Canadians do not want to be 'Americans' 
• Americanisms are perceived as a danger signal except in America
• All other countries can be grouped into those who follow American English and those who follow British English
• US spellings are becoming increasingly widespread. 
• Lexical distinctiveness can be seen between US and UK English
• Question of prestige is not easy to determine
• It will take time before the world sees a consensus
• Early 1980's there was a want to develop a 'nuclear' kind of English 

• The current growth spurt in the language has a history of less than 40 years.
• UN membership has more than doubled since 1960
• Growth in the world population from 2.5 thousand million to 5.6 thousand million
• Internationalism - Nation looks out from itself at the world as a whole and defines its needs in relation to that.
• Identity - a nation looks at the structure of its society, the psychology of its people and tries to define its needs in relation to its sense of national identity. 
• Internationalism implies intelligibilty 
• Internationalism demands an agreed standard
• Identity implies individuality
• if a nation wishes to preserve its uniqueness or establish its presence, then it must find aus of expressing its difference from the rest of the world
• Flags, symbols, uniforms and other symbols would have its place
• A nation variety of an international language will define them.

• Pressure for international intelligibility is very strong and may now be unstoppable
• International travel, satellite broadcasting, world press and telivision, world stock markets, multinational corporations, intergovernmental agencies and many other institutions have guaranteed a situation of daily contact for hundreds of million of English Speakers who together represent every major variety.
• Historical loyalties have been largely replaced by pragmatic, ulitarian reasoning. 
• British English is used to sell goods and services while American English may be needed too.

• Pressure to foster a national identity is very strong
• The 1990s had seen no reduction in the number of conflicts which involve regions trying to establish their independence. 
• When English is in close contact with other languages it will adopt some of the characteristics of those languages
• This can lead to a major local variety in language
• In South African English, Apartheid and impala have become part of the general English language while dorp (small town/village) and bredie (type of stew) have not as there is already an equivilent. 
• Mrs Indira Ghandi was propted to write to her Ministry of Education to complain of falling standards of English in India.