What is standard variety of English?

What is standard variety of English?

In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service announcements and newspapers of record, etc.

What is the difference between standard and non-standard variety?

A standard language is a variety of language that is used by governments, in the media, in schools and for international communication. In contrast, there are non-standard forms of a language that are used, for example, in different regional dialects and these non-standard varieties are different from each other.

What is the standard form of a language?

Standard languages arise when a certain dialect begins to be used in written form, normally throughout a broader area than that of the dialect itself. The ways in which this language is used—e.g., in administrative matters, literature, and economic life—lead to the minimization of linguistic variation.

What does language variety mean?

In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.

What is standard and non-standard English?

Standard English is used in formal settings, for example when we talk or write to people we don’t know well, such as doctors or head teachers. We use non-standard English in informal settings, when we are more relaxed and with people we know well, such as family or friends.

What are 4 characteristics of Standard English?

Standard english has distinctive features of grammar, vocabulary and orthography (spelling&punctuation) but not of pronunciation. This is because it can be spoken with any accent. It is the most prestigious variety of English, associated with people of high social status.

What is an example of an indigenized variety?

Indigenized variety: Indigenized varieties are spoken mainly as second languages in ex-colonies with multilingual populations. For example, ‘Singlish’ (spoken in Singapore) is a variety very different from standard English, and there are many other varieties of English used in India.

Why is language variety important?

The study of language variation guides language development activities. For example, when developing a writing system it is desireable for it to be useful and acceptable to the largest number of speakers of the language. Therefore, it is important to identify the most unifying features of the language.

What are examples of non-standard English?

Here are some non-standard English examples:

• ‘Yeah’ rather than ‘yes’ is perhaps the most obvious and most used non-standard English example.
• ‘We was’ in place of ‘we were’.
• ‘If I was you’ instead of ‘If I were you’.
• ‘Ain’t’ is a word that’s frequently used in non-standard English to replace ‘am not’.

What are the 5 characteristics of language?

Five fundamental characteristics of language include cultural relevance, symbolism, flexibility, variation, and social importance.