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Standardization & Regional Varieties - Coggle Diagram
Standardization & Regional Varieties
OE
By the 10th century, West Saxon had
become a
supra-regional dialect
and was on its way to becoming a
standard language
But during the 11th century (1066), the
English crown was lost to France and
English returned to the status of a spoken vernacular
King Alfred (9th century) wanted to adopt
West Saxon
as medium of teaching and writing >
abolishing Latin
and establishing
the vernacular language
ME
Dialect Areas
No ME standard language but a number of
interrelated dialects
Dialects
merge
into another, no clear boundaries
Dialect areas are roughly the same as before
Variation in Spelling
some words had about
hundred spelling variants
! (even within the same text by the same author!)
Early ME Period
After the Norman conquest there were
3 main languages
in
various dialects or varieties
English
After the Norman Conquest, English was
the
spoken language of the lower classes
From the 14th century onwards, English
reemerged as a written language
French
Abandoned
as a language of official record
in England during the 15th century
From the 13th century onwards, French was used for
administrative
and
commercial purposes
and as the medium of instruction at
grammar schools
Prestige language
of the
ruling class
until
the 14th century
Latin
Language of the
Holy Bible
, and also an
instrument of power
Official language of the
church
,
law
and
education
. It remained the language of the
universities
and of international scholarship
Only language
written universally across western Europe
and only language with
standardised grammar
and
spelling
ModE
RP
= Received Pronunciation
GA
= General American
Shared development until c.
1750
Linguistically clear differences concerning
Vocabulary
Spelling
Grammar
7 stages of Standardisation
4) Maintenance
England: also an
economic decision
: Caxton printed his books in the East Midlands dialect
The variety is maintained
5) Elaboration of function
In order to give the variety a greater status, it gains more functions, can be
used in more domains
Conscious effort in EModE to make English suitable for all purposes
3) Diffusion
The written code is diffused throughout a
wider speech community
6) Codification
The rules for the variety are written down in
grammars
and
dictionaries
English: attempts at establishing a language academy failed
2) Acceptance
The selected variety must gain
institutional support
in order to be accepted as a standard
Step 1:
spelling conventions
are fixed
7) Prescription
Example: Introduction to
the English Language by Lowth (1762)
The descriptive rules turn into
prescriptive
rules
, telling people about the “correct“ use of the variety
1) Selection
For a standard to emerge,
one particular variety
has to be selected
English: East Midlands dialect