Standard language

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The only requirement for a variety to be standard is that it can frequently be used in public places or public discourse.[1] The creation of a prescriptive standard language derives from a desire for national (cultural, political, and social) cohesion with this considered as requiring an agreed-upon, standardized language variety.[citation needed] Standard languages commonly feature:

List of standard languages and regulators[edit]

Further information: List of language regulators
Language Standard register Regulator Non-standard dialects
Afrikaans Standard Afrikaans Die Taalkommissie Afrikaans dialects
Basque Standard Basque Euskaltzaindia Basque dialects
Dutch Standard Dutch Nederlandse Taalunie Dutch dialects
Danish Rigsdansk Dansk Sprognævn Danish dialects
Chinese Standard Chinese National Language Regulating Committee (PRC), National Languages Committee (ROC/Taiwan), Promote Mandarin Council (Singapore) Varieties of Chinese, Mandarin dialects (Beijing, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Philippine)
Italian Standard Italian Accademia della Crusca Regional Italian
Korean Pluricentric Standard Korean (South Korean standard and North Korean standard The National Institute of the Korean Language, The Language Research Institute of Social Science Korean dialects
Malay Pluricentric Standard Malay (as a national language in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore; as a regional language in Indonesia), Malaysian language, and Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar) Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (for the Malay language in Malaysia and Brunei), Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa (for the Indonesian language), Majlis Bahasa Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia Malayan languages
Norwegian Nynorsk, Bokmål Språkrådet Norwegian dialects
Polish Standard Polish Polish Language Council Polish dialects
Somali Standard Somali Regional Somali Language Academy Somali languages
Swahili Standard Swahili based on the Kiunguja dialect (Zanzibar) the Inter-Territorial Language Committee Mombasa dialect, others
Swedish Standard Swedish Swedish Language Council, Svenska språkbyrån Swedish dialects



Arabic comprises many varieties (some of which are mutually unintelligible) which are considered a single language because the standardized register of Arabic, called Literary Arabic (or, misleadingly, Modern Standard Arabic), is generally intelligible to literate speakers. It is based on simplified Classical Arabic, the language of the Quran, which dates from the 7th century CE.




The Armenian language has Classical Armenian serving as the "high" literary standard, and the standardized vernacular Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian dialects.


The Chinese language (漢語) comprises a wide variety of spoken forms, which are known as fangyan (方言, “regional speech”). The major spoken variants are (i) Mandarin, (ii) Wu, (iii) Yue, and (iv) Min. These spoken variants are not mutually intelligible, so referring to them by the English term “dialect” is inaccurate, since this generally denotes mutual intelligibility. Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, and is the official language of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Republic of Singapore. It is called Putonghua (普通话, “common speech”) in the PRC, Guoyu (國語, “national language”) in Taiwan, and Huayu (华语, “Chinese language”) in Singapore. Classical Chinese previously served as the written standard before being replaced by written vernacular Chinese spoken according to Standard Mandarin pronounciation.

The Chinese language also enjoys official status in Hong Kong (together with English) and in Macau (together with Portuguese). However, Standard Mandarin is not widely spoken in these territories. The majority of the population speaks, and often writes, Cantonese.


In British English the standard, known as Standard English (SE), is historically based on the language of the medieval English court of Chancery.[8] The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the establishment of this standard as the norm of "polite" society, that is to say of the upper classes.[9] The spoken standard has come to be seen as a mark of good education and social prestige.[10] Although often associated with the RP accent, SE can be spoken with any accent.[11]

The dialects of American English vary throughout the US, but the General American accent is the unofficial standard language for being considered accentless; it is based on Midwestern English, distributed within an isogloss area encompassing parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois, excluding the Chicago area.[citation needed]


Filipino is the standardised form of the Manila dialect of Tagalog, and is an official language of the Philippines. Most regions of the Philippines have a different Philippine language as their first language, but all Filipinos learn Tagalog in school. Tagalog is thus used as the lingua franca. National television is almost exclusively in Tagalog. National printed media are sometimes in Tagalog but more often in English.




Parisian French is the standard in French literature.


The Georgian language has a literary liturgical form, the Old Georgian language, while the vernacular spoken varities are the Georgian dialects and other related Kartvelian languages like Svan language, Mingrelian language, and Laz language.


Standard German was developed over several centuries, during which time writers tried to write in a way intelligible to the greatest number of readers and speakers, thus, until about 1800, Standard German was mostly a written language. In that time, northern Germany spoke Low German dialects much different from Standard German. Later, the Northern pronunciation of written German became considered as the universal standard; in Hanover, because of that adoption, the local dialect disappeared.




Two standardized registers of the Hindustani language have legal status India: Standard Hindi (one of 23 co-official national languages) and Urdu (Pakistan’s official tongue), resultantly, Hindustani often called “Hindi-Urdu”.[13]


An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official Standard"), often shortened to An Caighdeán, is official standard of the Irish language. It is taught in most schools in Ireland, though with strong influences from local dialects. It was first published by the translators in Dáil Éireann in the 1950s.[14] As of September 2013,[15] the first major revision of the Caighdeán Oifigiúil is available, both online[16] and in print.[17] Among the changes to be found in the revised version are, for example, various attempts to bring the recommendations of the Caighdeán closer to the spoken dialect of Gaeltacht speakers,[18] including allowing further use of the nominative case where the genitive would historically have been found.[19]


Standard Italian derives from Tuscan, specifically from its Florentine variety: the Florentine influence upon early Italian literature established that dialect as base for the standard language of Italy. In particular Italian became the language of culture for all the people of Italy, thanks to the prestige of the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini. It would later become the official language of all the Italian states, and after the Italian unification it became the national language of the Kingdom of Italy.[20] Modern Standard Italian's lexicon has been deeply influenced by almost all regional languages of Italy while its received pronunciation (known as Pronuncia Fiorentina Emendata, Amended Florentine Pronunciation) is based on the accent of Romanesco (Rome's dialect); these are the reasons why Standard Italian can't be considered identical to Tuscan.[21]



Language distribution: The official form of written Norwegian by municipality in Norway. Red: Bokmål. Blue: New Norwegian. Grey: Neutral (neither form is official, usually because of a fairly even number of users or lack of political decisions over the matter).












In Brazil, actors and journalists usually adopt an unofficial, but de facto, spoken standard Portuguese, originally derived from the middle-class dialect of Rio de Janeiro, but that now encompasses educated urban pronunciations from the different speech communities in the southeast. In that standard, <s> represents the phoneme /s/ when it appears at the end of a syllable (whereas in Rio de Janeiro this represents /ʃ/) the rhotic consonant spelled <r> is pronounced [h] in the same situation (whereas in São Paulo this is usually an alveolar flap or trill). 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].[23] Between vowels, <r> represents /ɾ/ for most dialects.


Four standard variants of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian are spoken in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.[24] They all have the same dialect basis (Štokavian).[13][25] These variants do differ slightly, as is the case with other pluricentric languages.[13][26] The differences between the variants do not hinder mutual intelligibility and do not undermine the integrity of the system as a whole.[27][28][29] Compared to the differences between the variants of English, German, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, the distinctions between the variants of Serbo-Croatian are less significant.[30] Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro in their constitution have all named the language differently.[31]


In Somalia, Northern Somali (or North-Central Somali) forms the basis for Standard Somali,[32] particularly the Mudug dialect of the northern Darod clan. Northern Central Somali has frequently been used by famous Somali poets as well as the political elite, and thus has the most prestige among other Somali dialects.[33]


In Spain, Standard Spanish is based partly upon the speech of educated speakers from Madrid, but mainly upon the literary language. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. This is known as Rioplatense Spanish (“River Plate Spanish”), distinguishable, from other standard Spanish dialects, by the greater use of the voseo. Like Rioplatense Spanish, all Standard Spanish dialects in all Latin America, United States, and Canary Islands are related to Andalusian Spanish. In Colombia, the dialect of Bogotá ("Rolo") is valued across Latin America for its clear pronunciation.[34]




Uzbek and Uyghur[edit]


See also[edit]


  2. ^ Clyne 1992
  4. ^ Italian language.
  5. ^ a b Clyne 1992, p. 3.
  7. ^ a b c Vahid, Ranjbar (2008). The standard language of Kurdish. Iran: Naqd-hall. 
  8. ^ Smith 1996
  9. ^ Blake 1996
  10. ^ Baugh and Cable, 2002
  11. ^ Smith, 1996
  15. ^ Niamh Ní Shúilleabháin (2012-08-02). "Caighdeán Athbhreithnithe don Ghaeilge". (in Gaeilge, [ga]). Retrieved 2012-08-02. 
  16. ^ "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil—Caighdeán Athbhreithnithe" (PDF) (in Gaeilge, [ga]). Seirbhís Thithe an Oireachtais. January 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-02. 
  17. ^ "Foilseacháin Rialtais / Government Publications—Don tSeachtain dar críoch 25 Iúil 2012 / For the week ended 25 July 2012" (PDF) (in Gaeilge, [ie]; English, [en]). Rialtas na hÉireann. 27 July 2012. p. 2. Retrieved 2012-08-02. M67B Gramadach na Gaeilge 9781406425766 390 10.00 
  18. ^ Vivian Uíbh Eachach, ed. (January 2012). An Caighdeán Oifigiúil—Caighdeán Athbhreithnithe (in Gaeilge, [ga]). Seirbhís Thithe an Oireachtais. p. 7. Rinneadh iarracht ar leith san athbhreithniú seo foirmeacha agus leaganacha atá ar fáil go tréan sa chaint sna mórchanúintí a áireamh sa Chaighdeán Oifigiúil Athbhreithnithe sa tslí is go mbraithfeadh an gnáthchainteoir mórchanúna go bhfuil na príomhghnéithe den chanúint sin aitheanta sa Chaighdeán Oifigiúil agus, mar sin, gur gaire don ghnáthchaint an Caighdeán Oifigiúil anois ná mar a bhíodh. 
  20. ^ A Brief History of the Italian Language by Cory Crawford.
  21. ^ La pronuncia italiana (Italian).
  24. ^ Kordić, Snježana (2007). "La langue croate, serbe, bosniaque et monténégrine" [Croatian, Serbian, Bosniakian, and Montenegrin]. In Madelain, Anne. Au sud de l'Est. vol. 3 (in French). Paris: Non Lieu. pp. 71–78. ISBN 978-2-35270-036-4. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012. 
  26. ^ Kordić, Snježana (2009). "Policentrični standardni jezik" [Polycentric Standard Language]. In Badurina, Lada; Pranjković, Ivo; Silić, Josip. Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb: Disput. pp. 83–108. ISBN 978-953-260-054-4. OCLC 437306433. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012. 
  32. ^ Dalby (1998:571)
  33. ^ Saeed (1999:5)
  34. ^

