Dialect and language variation
Standard VS nonstandard linguistic perspectives
What is dialect?
Dialect is a variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is systematically different
from other varieties in both structure and lexical features of a specific language whether it is
English, Pashto, Hindi or any other language.
There are thousands of language in the world and it has its own speakers and all of them are
speaking a dialect of a specific language.
Variation in a language is a natural part of a language and this variation is in different part of a
language like accent or phonological differences which refers to pronunciation, morphological,
lexical and syntactic differences.
Topics which are featured in language and dialect variation are dialect theories: linguistic
geography, structural and generative dialectology and language variation.
In terms of variation of a language we have speech communities which are the groups of people
who share and use linguistic norms and the rule of language is shaping this community or
group’s identity.
Social and cultural factors can create distinct speech communities and these dialects many
include local variation but generally are spoken by members of the social group regardless of
location a clear example is in English language like Standard English, African English American
English and Chicano English.
What effects language variation within speech communities?
Factors like geography, age, gender, socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity effect the language
variation within speech communities.
Social and cultural factors can create distinct speech communities as well. These dialects may
include local variation, but generally are spoken by members of the social group regardless of
location. Examples include: Standard English, African American English, and Chicano English.
The major part of variation in a language is code-switching or mixing which a speaker of a
language move from one language to another or from one variety to another depending on the
social situation. It is the result of language-contact situation where speakers of two different
languages come into contact over a purpose and it actually requires a high proficiency in both
language in some cases it doesn’t require.
A clear example of this contact of languages is in Pashtuns who are living in Pakistan due to the
contact of Pashto-English and Pashto-Urdu languages. Where Pashtun people became a part of
Pakistan due to the crossing of Diwrand hypothetical line.
Standard:
In contemporary linguistic usage standard variety, standard dialect and standard is language
variety rather than the totality of the language and linguistically is the target of a language taught
in Education and is the language of the wider communities like government and media.
Standard languages include a relatively fixed orthography codified in normative dictionaries and
in grammar.
The terms written language and literary language occasionally have used as a synonym for
standard languages.
Most of the users of standard language come to believe that this language is inherently superior
and consider standard language as linguistic baseline to judge other varieties of language.
Standardization of a language is perpetual process.
Codification: in linguistic is a process of prescribing, selecting and developing a model for a
standard language usage. It typically means to improve a writing system and set norms and rules
for grammar, pronunciation and orthography and the usage of vocabularies and dictionaries.
In a well-known model by as an American linguist, professor and author of Harvard University
Einar Haugen says in his well-known model that codification is only the second step.
First step is the selection process, step two is codification (prescribing and developing a model
for standard language usage) step three is the implementation of the changes in society and step
four is the elaboration or production of vocabulary especially technical terms.
And it terms of standard language and its acceptance to public there are pluricentric language
and monocentric languages.
Pluricentric language: is a language with several interacting codified standard forms which are
often corresponding to different countries languages like: English, German, Chines, French,
Korean, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and ….
Monocentric language: unlike pluricentric languages which have only one standardized form like
Russian and Japanese.
Nonstandard:
Vernacular or nonstandard dialect it is a dialect or language variety that has not historically
benefited from the institutional support or else we can say that sanction which a standard dialect
has.
Linguistically on both structural and communicative level standard and nonstandard varieties of
a language is equal.
However nonstandard verities are often viewed as uneducated or ungrammatical and this
judgment about prestige is often politically and socially motivated. However the term
“nonstandard” should not be taken to mean that the dialect is intrinsically incorrect, less logical
or inferior, in fact linguists consider all nonstandard dialects to be grammatically full-fledged
varieties of a language.
A nonstandard dialect my even have its own written form, though it could be assumed that the
orthography is unstable and that is not officially supported by government or educational
institution a prominent example of nonstandard dialects in writing is nonstandard phonemic
spelling of poetry or reported speech in literature for example the publication of Jamaican poet
(Linton Kwesi Johnson) that it sometimes described as eye dialect.
Eye dialect: it is the use of words that misspelled deliberately but pronounced properly this term
coined by George Philip Krapp to refer to the literary technique of using nonstandard spelling
that implies a pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard. Such as wimmin for
women. This spelling indicates that the speech of this person is dialectal, uneducated or foreign.
As Charles Dickens combined nonstandard dialect and spelling in the speech of his uneducated
characters. An example in Bleak House is the following dialogue spoken by Jo, the miserable
boy who sweeps a path across a street:
...there wos other genlmen come down Tom-all-Alone's a-prayin, but they all mostly sed as the
t'other wuns prayed wrong, and all mostly sounded as to be a-talking to theirselves, or a-
passing blame on the t'others, and not a-talkin to us.
In general using nonstandard variety is visible in prose fiction, poetry, comics and reported
speech in many languages.
Speaking a nonstandard variety may be warranted in different contexts as speakers use language
to express membership in a social group, to show solidarity, or to display cultural pride.
Richard Nordquist English and Rhetoric professor at state university of New York
and at Georgia southern university says about Nonstandard English that it refers
to any dialect of English and is sometimes referred to as nonstandard dialect or
non-standard variety. The term Nonstandard English is sometimes used
disapprovingly by non-linguists to describe "bad" or "incorrect" English.
The Stigma of Nonstandard English
"We should not be so naive... as to begin thinking that nonstandard English
will ever shed its stigma. Many who argue against teaching Standard
conventions seem to believe it will. The reality is that failure to teach the
conventions of Standard and formal Standard English in our classes is
unlikely to have any effect on society's attitudes toward speakers of
nonstandard English, but it will most certainly have an effect on our
students' lives. Their horizons will be limited, and many at the bottom of
the socioeconomic scale will remain ghettoized. On this basis alone, I
would argue that we must push students to reach their full potential,
especially with regard to language. Our society is growing ever more
competitive, not less, and Standard English, because it is inclusive rather
than limiting, is a basic requirement for social and economic
opportunities."
(James D. Williams, The Teacher's Grammar Book, 2nd ed. Routledge,
2005)
Nordquist, Richard. "Nonstandard English Definition and Examples." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27,
2020, thoughtco.com/what-is-nonstandard-english-1691438.
