What Is Standard English? •

'pure' SE. Similarly, when they write - itself a minority activity • the consistent use of SE is required only in certain tasks (such as a letter to a newspaper, but not necessarily to a close friend). More than anywhere else, SE is to be found in print. On this basis, we may define the Standard English of an English-speaking country as a minority variety (identified chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar, and orthography) which carries most prestige and is most widely understood. World Standard English? Since the 1980s, the notion of 'standard' If we read the newspapers or listen to the has come to the fore in public debate newscasters around the English-speaking about the English language. At national world, we will quickly develop the level, in several countries (but especially impression that there is a World Standard in the UK), the concern has focused on English (WSE), acting as a strongly the devising of an acceptable national unifying force among the vast range of curriculum for English in primary and variation which exists. However, a totally secondary education. uniform, regionally neutral, and At international level, the focus has unarguably prestigious variety does not yet been on the question of which national Is there a exist worldwide. standards to use in teaching English as a • Each country where English is a foreign language. In both contexts, World Standard first language is aware of its however, there is a need for clear under• linguistic identity, and is anxious standing about what Standard English (SE) English? to preserve it from the influence of actually is. Disentangling the issues is others. New Zealanders do not best done first at national level, where the want to be Australians; Canadians issues have been around a long time, and David Crystal do not want to be 'Americans' , and are reasonably well understood. From the Americanism is perceived as a dozens of definitions available in the investigates. danger signal by usage guardians literature on English, we may extract five everywhere (except in the USA). essential characteristics. community. In the words of one • All other countries can be grouped Defining Standard English US linguist, SE is 'the English into those which follow American • SE is a variety of English - a used by the powerful' (James English, those which follow distinctive combination of Sledd). British English, and those (such as linguistic features with a particular • The prestige attached to SE is Canada) where there is a mixture role to play. Some people call it a recognised by adult members of of influences. One of the most 'dialect' of English - and so it is, the community, and this motivates noticeable features of this divided but of a rather special kind, for it them to recommend SE as a usage is spelling. In certain has no local base. There is nothing desirable educational target. It is domains, such as computing and in the grammar and vocabulary of the variety which is used as the medicine, US spellings are a piece of SE to tell us which part norm of communication by the becoming increasingly widespread of a country it comes from. community's leading institutions, (program, disk, pediatrics), but we • The linguistic features of SE are such as its government, law courts, are a long way from uniformity. chiefly matters of grammar, and media. It is therefore the • A great deal of lexical distinctive• vocabulary and orthography variety which is likely to be the ness can be observed in the (spelling and punctuation). It is most widely disseminated among specialised terms of local politics, important to note that SE is not a the public. It will, accordingly, be business, culture and natural matter of pronunciation: SE is widely understood - though not by history, and in the 'domestic' spoken in a wide variety of accents everyone, and with varying com• columns of national newspapers (including, of course, any prestige prehension of some of its features (such as Want Ads). There is also accent a country may have, such as (thus motivating the demands of a certain amount of grammatical British Received Pronunciation). the 'plain English' campaigns). It distinctiveness, especially between • SE is the variety of English which mayor may not be liked. US and UK English . carries most prestige within a • Although SE is widely understood, • The notion of a 'standard pronun• country. 'Prestige' is a social it is not widely produced. Only a ciation' is useful in the internation• concept, whereby some people minority of people within a al setting of English as a second or have high standing in the eyes of country (e.g. radio newscasters) foreign language, but here too others, whether this derives from actually use it when they talk. there is more than one teaching social class, material success, Most people speak a variety of model - chiefly, British Received political strength, popular acclaim, regional English, or an admixture Pronunciation and US General or educational background. The of standard and regional Englishes, American. English that these people choose to and reserve such labels as 'BBC Would it be more prestigious for a use will, by this very fact, become English' or 'the Queen's English' report from an international body to be in • the standard within their for what they perceive to be a British or American spelling? • The question of prestige is not • Internationalism implies intelligi• The Drive for Identity easy to determine, at an interna• bility. If the reason for any nation The pressure to foster national identity is tional level, because of the wishing to promote English is to also very strong, and the signs are that different national histories which give it access to what the broader divergence is increasing. The 1990s has coexist. Would it be more English-speaking world has to seen no reduction in the number of prestigious for a report from an offer, then it is crucial for its conflicts which involve regions trying to international body to appear in people to be able to understand the establish their independence, and one British or American spelling? English of that world, and to be consequence of successful nationalism is Should it refer to cars or understood in their turn. In short, the early adoption of speech forms automobiles? What image do its internationalism demands an marking a linguistic distance between the authors wish to convey? Decisions agreed standard - in grammar, new nation and its colonial antecedents. about such matters are made in vocabulary, spelling, pronuncia• Two local factors readily foster this innumerable contexts every day. It tion, and conventions of use - and distancing: will take time before the world promotes the notion of a World • It is inevitable, first of all, that sees a consensus, and only time Standard English. when English is in close contact will tell whether this consensus • Identity implies individuality. If a with other languages, it will adopt will display the domination of a nation wishes to preserve its some of the characteristics of those present-day variety of English uniqueness or to establish its languages, especially their (such as American English), presence, and to avoid being an vocabulary and prosody. The develop a new, composite variety anonymous ingredient in a cultural latter, in particular, can be a major (as in the kind of English melting-pot, then it must search for source of local variety identity, as commonly heard in the corridors ways of expressing its difference is heard in the distinctive stress• of power of the European from the rest of the world. Flags, time rhythm of Indian or Community, and sometimes called uniforms, and other such symbols Caribbean English, or the rising 'Euro-English'), or create an will have their place, but nothing intonations of Australian and New entirely fresh variety, based on a will be so naturally and universally Zealand English. set of assumptions about those present as a national language - or, • Secondly, the fact that English is aspects of English which are most if there is none, a national variety found all over the world means useful for international purposes of an international language. In that it will be used to express an (as in the proposal in the early short, in the context of English, unparalleled range of fauna, flora, 1980s to develop a 'nuclear' kind identity demands linguistic distinc• and cultural features. Each of English which would include tiveness - in grammar, vocabulary, English-speaking country will only the most communicative spelling, pronunciation, or accordingly find itself with features of grammar and conventions or language use - and thousands of words to express its vocabulary). promotes the notion of a diverse local character. Whether we view It is, accordingly, difficult to know set of Regional Standard these words as part of a world what to expect, when a language develops Englishes. standard or a regional standard will a worldwide presence to the extent that The Drive for Intelligibility depend chiefly on the extent to English has. There are no precedents for The pressure for international intelligibili• which the world at large is such a geographical spread or for so many ty is very strong, and may by now be interested in the notions they speakers. Moreover, the speed at which it unstoppable. International travel, satellite express. Thus, in South African has all happened is unprecedented: broadcasting, world press and television, English apartheid and impala have although the history of world English can world stock markets, multinational corpo• become part of the general English be traced back 400 years, the current rations, intergovernmental agencies, and vocabulary, whereas dorp ('small growth spurt in the language has a history many other institutions have guaranteed a town or village') and bredie ('type of less than 40 years. There has never situation of daily contact for hundreds of of stew') have not. The words been such an increase in independent millions of English speakers who together most resistant to world standardis• states (UN membership has more than represent every major variety. Historical ation will be those which already doubled since 1960) nor such a growth in loyalties (e.g. to Britain) have been largely have equivalents in Standard world population (from 2.5 thousand replaced by pragmatic, utilitarian British or American English, such million in 1950 to 5.6 thousand million in reasoning. If using British English can as outwith (Scots, 'outside') or 1994). How will English fare (how would sell goods and services, then let British godown (Indian, 'warehouse'). any language fare?), faced with such English be used. If it needs American There may be a natural balance which responsibilities and having to respond to English, then so be it. And let either or the language will eventually achieve. A such pressures? others by employed as occasion demands. nationalistic climate may cause a variety The Conflict between Internationalism It is not surprising, in such a climate, to to move in a particular direction away and Identity find a core of English grammar, from its source standard, but may then be The examples above suggest that there are vocabulary and orthography already in pulled back when moderates within the two chief issues - of internationalism and widespread use, at least in print. There is, community find it increasingly difficult to of identity. The problem is that these however, still some way to go before the understand what is being said. An conflict. In the former case, a nation looks world arrives at a level of uniform usage example of this actually happening was out from itself at the world as a whole, and which will guarantee international intelli• reported in 1985 by Alan Maley, at the tries to define its needs in relation to that gibi~ity at levels comparable to those time the British Council Representative in world. In the latter case, a nation looks found intranationally. Breakdowns in South India: within itself at the structure of its society communication due to differences in Mrs Indira Gandhi was prompted to and the psychology of its people, and tries idiom, vocabu lary, or grammar are write to her Ministry of Education not so to define its needs in relation to its sense common enough, even between British long ago to complain of falling standards of national identity. Corresponding and American English, and differences in of English in India, reportedly after linguistic issues automatically arise . regional accent can be devastating. attending an international meeting at • what is standard english? •

which she had been unable to understand the con• tribution of the Indian delegate (speaking in English). The features of Indian English which gave Mrs Gandhi a problem are well-recognised. Whether her reaction was representative and influential remains to be seen. The future of English There is no linguistic subject more prone to emotional rhetoric or wild exaggeration that the future of the English language. Heights of optimism complete with depths of pessimism. Among the optimists we may cite the German philologist Jakob Grimm, who addressed the point in a lecture published in 1852: "Of all modem languages, not one has acquired such great strengths and vigour as the English ... (it) may be called justly a LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD and seems, like the English nation, to be destined to reign in future with still more extensive sway over all parts of the globe." In the late Victorian period, estimates of the numbers of mother-tongue English speakers living a century thereafter (i.e. today) often reached astronomical heights. One writer, in an issue of The Phonetic Journal (13 September 1873) calculated (with hopeful precision) that by the year 2000 this total would be 1,837,286,153 - an estimate which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be seen to be in error by a factor of six. Such totals were commonplace in the heady atmosphere which accompanied the climax of British and American colonial expansion. By contrast, there were the pessimists, predicting that within a century the English language would be in fragments. Here we may cite the British philologist Henry Sweet, who wrote in 1877: " ... by that time (a century hence) England, America, and Australia will be speaking mutually unintelligible languages, owing to their independent changes of pronunciation." The same point had been made nearly a century before by Noah Webster, in his Dissertations on the English Language (1789). Webster though that such a development would be 'necessary and unavoidable', and would result in 'a language in North America, as different from the future language of England, as the modem Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from the German, or from one another'. From Webster's pro-American point of view, of course, this would not have been such a bad thing. Neither Grimm nor Sweet proved to be accurate prophets. English has indeed become a world language, but it is by no means everywhere and it is by no means always welcome. And English has indeed developed many spoken varieties, but these are by no means mutually unintelligible. Perhaps the only safe generalisation to be made is that predictions about the future of English have a habit of being wrong. Professor David Crystal, author, lecturer, broadcaster on language and linguistics, is also an editor of reference books. He is author of An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages and editor of the Cambridge Concise Encyclopedia. He is a member of the ESU's • English Language Committee .