The Evolution of Standard English

Standardisation or uniformity is possible to a certain extent in grammar, syntax, and even vocabulary. But in the case of pronunciation, each person or each locality has its own variations. The spoken form varies so much that sometimes it is even difficult to understand each other. 
for example, London Cockney differs much from early Scottish English or Yorkshire dialect. Moreover, what is slang and vulgar in one particular period may become acceptable later. Words like cab, taxi etc., have now become acceptable though they were slang a few years before. But in spite of these differences and peculiarities, we find there is an accepted form of English, which stands above the local or regional dialects and is spoken by the educated people from whatever locality or social class they come. This is Standard English or King's English, the linguistic currency of the realm.

Daniel Jones defines Standard English as the form of speech most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of Southern England, whose menfolk have been educated in the great public schools. He implies two facts, that Standard English is the form used by the educated classes and that it is based on the language of Southern England.


Standard English has grown and developed from the East Midland dialect spoken in and around London. This dialect gained pre eminence over the other dialects, as London was the seat of the court, of administration, the centre of national life, and the focus of social and intellectual activities. Again, it was this East Midland variety that was used in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Chaucer, by writing in East Midland and Caxton by using it in his early printed works, also gave a sort of superiority to this dialect. Southern dialects which were extremely conservative, reluctant to change the old forms, and the Northern dialects, ready to changes and innovations. East Midland, less progressive than the Northern dialect, but more advanced than the Southern was comprehensible to the speakers of the South and North.

Some other factors which helped in the evolution of Standard English were the following. (a) The invention of printing, which were fixed to a considerable degree the vocabulary, grammar and spelling of the language. (b) Authorised Version of the Bible also had a great formative influence on the language. Much of its phrasing and rhythm sand into the mind of the reader/listener and became a part of everyday speech. (c) Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (1755) also rendered valuable service to the language. Besides bringing some sort of order in the confusion that existed in English spelling in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Dr. Johnson also distinguished between reputable words and low words and illustrated their usage. (d) other factors which have contributed to the evolution of Standard English are the increased contacts between the various social classes, the spread of reading and education among all classes and the advent of the wireless. 

Standard English, therefore, does not imply standardisation of complete fixation, realising the fact that language is changing and developing and hence what is slang today may become respectable tomorrow. Language is always in a flux. In these modern days, Standard English has a lot of flexibility, with a good range of variation, since there are a number of national (eg: American, Australian etc.) as well as non-native (eg: the South Asian varieties) varieties of English. Recent developments in travel and communication have made the world smaller, fostering a spirit of tolerance and compromise. The BBC has helped in spreading a good standard variety of English across the world. American English has gained prominence and some have accepted the American Standard as the standard variety of English. Thus the term Standard English is no more restricted in sense as it used to be in the 18th and 19th century. The evolution of Standard English, however, is a standing testimony to the adaptability of the genius of English which has gained momentum over the centuries with every passing trend.  

Dr. Susan Mathew
CMS College Kottayam

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight

Image
  I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight Agha Shahid Ali The Poet Agha Shahid Ali was born in 1949: just one year or more after Independence, and also after partition. His birth was in Delhi, but he was raised up in Kashmir. Life in Kashmir was difficult in those days. The problems of partition, with India and Pakistan holding claim to the territories there, made the place a constant field of fights and tensions. The poet moved over to the USA in 1976. This poem forms part of a collection “The Country without a Post Office”. which came out in 1997. Agha Shahid Ali is a representative of diaspora. He has childhood memories of Kashmir. He spent his youthhood partly in Delhi, where he had his college education. Then he moved over to the United States of America, where he became a teacher and emerged as a noted poet. In most of his poems, Kashmir and its problems form the theme. The Poem “I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight”, by Agha Shahid Ali, is a diasporic poem, where the poet h
Read more

Romeo and Juliet (Savouring the Classics)

Image
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) The Writer Shakespeare needs little introduction! A writer of plays - tragedies, comedies, and histories, and also the composer of poems and sonnets. He lived in Elizabethan England, in the sixteenth century. But he belongs not to any particular place or time. As his friend and contemporary writer Ben Jonson puts it: “He was not of an age, but for all time!” A Shakespearean drama, according to the Elizabethan convention, is divided into five Acts. Each Act may have a number of scenes. The Elizabethan stage had no curtains in the front. Hence, the writers arranged each section in a way all characters left the stage at the end of a scene. Even if there is a dead body, there will be someone to carry it away. Because there is no back curtain depicting any scenery or background, the plays will have lots of descriptions explaining what all can be seen. The Play “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the early plays from Shakespeare. The plot is develo
Read more

I'm Explaining A Few Things - Pablo Neruda

Image
  I'm Explaining a Few Things The Poem: English Translation You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs? and the poppy-petalled metaphysics? and the rain repeatedly spattering its words and drilling them full of apertures and birds?   I'll tell you all the news.   I lived in a suburb, a suburb of Madrid, with bells, and clocks, and trees.   From there you could look out over Castille's dry face: a leather ocean.            My house was called the house of flowers, because in every cranny geraniums burst: it was a good-looking house with its dogs and children.              Remember, Raul? Eh, Rafel?        Federico, do you remember from under the ground my balconies on which the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth?           Brother, my brother! Everything loud with big voices, the salt of merchandises, pile-ups of palpitating bread, the stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue like a drained inkwell in a swirl of hake: oil
Read more