STANDARD LANGUAGE A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includes a standardized form as one of its varieties. Typically, the language varieties that undergo substantive standardization are the dialects associated with centers of commerce and government. By processes that linguistic anthropologists call "referential displacement" and that sociolinguists call "elaboration of function", these varieties acquire the social prestige associated with commerce and government. As a sociological effect of these processes, most users of this language come to believe that the standard language is inherently superior or consider it the linguistic baseline against which to judge other varieties of language. The standardization of a language is a continual process, because a language-in-use cannot be permanently standardized like the parts of a machine. Typically, the standardization process includes efforts to stabilize the spelling of the prestige dialect, to codify usages and particular (denotative) meanings through formal grammars and dictionaries, and to encourage public acceptance of the codifications as intrinsically correct. In Europe, a standardized written language is sometimes identified with the German word Schriftsprache (written language). The term literary language is occasionally used as a synonym for standard language, especially with respect to the Slavic languages, which is a naming convention still prevalent in the linguistic traditions of eastern Europe. In contemporary linguistic usage, the terms standard dialect and standard variety are neutral synonyms for the term standard language, usages which indicate that the standard language is one of many dialects and varieties of a language, rather than the totality of the language, whilst minimizing the negative implication of social subordination that the standard is the only idiom worthy of the appellation "language". When do Standard Languages Arise 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. The social prestige attached to the speech of the richest, most powerful, and most highly educated members of a society transforms their language into a model for others; it also contributes to the elimination of deviating linguistic forms. Dictionaries and grammars help to stabilize linguistic norms, as do the activity of scholarly institutions and, sometimes, governmental intervention. The base dialect for a country’s standard language is very often the original dialect of the capital and its environs—in France, Paris; in England, London; in Russia, Moscow. Or the base may be a strong economic and cultural centre—in Italy, Florence. Or the language may be a combination of several regional dialects, as are German and Polish. Even a standard language that was originally based on one local dialect changes, however, as elements of other dialects infiltrate into it over the years. The actual development in any one linguistic area depends on historical events. Sometimes even the distribution of standard languages may not correspond to the dialectal situation. Dutch and Flemish dialects are a part of the Low German dialectal area, which embraces all of northern Germany, as well as the Netherlands and part of Belgium. In one part of the dialectal area, however, the standard language is based on High German, and in the other part the standard language is Dutch or Flemish, depending on the nationality of the respective populations. In the United States, where there is no clearly dominant political or cultural centre—such as London or Paris—and where the territory is enormous, the so-called standard language shows perceptible regional variations in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. All standard languages are in any case spoken in a variety of accents, though sometimes one particular accent (e.g., Received Pronunciation in Britain) may be most closely associated with the standard because of its shared social or educational origins. In most developed countries, the majority of the population has an active (speaking, writing) or at least passive (understanding) command of the standard language. Very often the rural population, and not uncommonly the lower social strata of the urban population as well, are in reality bidialectal. They speak their maternal dialect at home and with friends and acquaintances in casual contacts, and they use the standard language in more formal situations. Even the educated urban population in some regions uses the so-called colloquial language informally. Idiolect Idiolect is an individual's unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. An idiolect is the variety of language unique to an individual. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people. An idiolect is the dialect of an individual person at one time. This term implies an awareness that no two persons speak in exactly the same way and that each person’s dialect is constantly undergoing change—e.g., by the introduction of newly acquired words. Thus an idiolect is a person’s specific, unique way of speaking. Everyone has their very own idiolect that differs from the way other people talk. A dialect is a version of a language spoken by a group of people. An idiolect is much smaller — it’s the way a particular person speaks, at a specific time, as distinct from others. This word is mainly used by linguists when discussing differences in speech from one person to another. Like your fingerprint, your idiolect is unique. It’s kind of like a micro-dialect. An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual, a linguistic pattern regarded as unique among speakers of a person's language or dialect. But it is even more granular, narrower than just all the speakers of a particular dialect. Because each of us belongs to different social groups, we each speak a language variety made up of a combination of features slightly different from those characteristics of any other speaker of the language. The language variety unique to a single speaker of a language is called an idiolect. Your idiolect includes the vocabulary appropriate to your various interests and activities, pronunciations reflective of the region in which you live or have lived, and variable styles of speaking that shift subtly depending on whom you are addressing. Shaping Idiolects [A person's idiolect is] not just vocabulary; it's everything from how we pronounce certain words to how we put them together to what we imagine they mean. Ever have a disagreement with someone over whether an ambiguously-shaded object was actually blue or green? Congratulations, you've witnessed differences in idiolect.... Your sense of English as a whole is really an abstract combination of all of the idiolects that you've experienced over the course of your life, especially at a young and formative age. The conversations you've had, the books you've read, the television you've watched: all of these give you a sense of what exists out there as possible variants on the English language. The elements that you hear more commonly, or the features that you prefer for whatever reason, are the ones you latch onto as prototypical. Difference between Idiolect and Dialect A person's idiolect also includes the levels of diction or language that he or she uses in different social situations. Almost all speakers make use of several idiolects, depending on then circumstances of communication. For example, when family members talk to each other, their speech habits typically differ from those any one of them would use in, say, an interview with a prospective employer. The concept of idiolect refers to a very specific phenomenon—the speech variety, or linguistic system, used by a particular individual. All those idiolects that have enough in common to appear at least superficially alike belong to a dialect. The term dialect, then, is an abstraction. Difference between Idiolect and Sociolect Sociolect is a variety of language associated with a particular social group, produced due to the effects of education, occupation, social class, religion, etc. Idiolect is the language of a single individual (language which one person has made up for their own use only). DIGLOSSIA In sociolinguistics, diglossia is a situation in which two distinct varieties of a language are spoken within the same speech community. Bilingual diglossia is a type of diglossia in which one language variety is used for writing and another for speech. When people are bidialectal, they can use two dialects of the same language, based on their surroundings or different contexts where they use one or the other language variety. The term diglossia (from the Greek for "speaking two languages") was first used in English by linguist Charles Ferguson in 1959. Diction versus Diglossia Diglossia is more involved than just switching between levels of diction in the same language, such as going from slang or texting shortcuts to writing up a formal paper for a class or report for a business. It's more than being able to use a language's vernacular. Diglossia, in a strict definition, is distinct in that the "high" version of a language isn't used for ordinary conversation and has no native speakers. How Body Language and Non-Verbal Communication Differ Examples include the differences between standard and Egyptian Arabic; Greek; and Haitian Creole. "In the classic diglossic situation, two varieties of a language, such as standard French and Haitian creole French, exist alongside each other in a single society," explains author Robert Lane Greene. "Each variety has its own fixed functions—one a 'high,' prestigious variety, and one a 'low,' or colloquial, one. Using the wrong variety in the wrong situation would be socially inappropriate, almost on the level of delivering the BBC's nightly news in broad Scots." He continues the explanation: "Children learn the low variety as a native language; in diglossic cultures, it is the language of home, the family, the streets and marketplaces, friendship, and solidarity. By contrast, the high variety is spoken by few or none as a first language. It must be taught in school. The high variety is used for public speaking, formal lectures and higher education, television broadcasts, sermons, liturgies, and writing. (Often the low variety has no written form.)" ("You Are What You Speak." Delacorte, 2011) Neither is diglossia always as benign as a community that just happens to have two languages, one for law and one for chatting personally. Autor Ronald Wardhaugh, in "An Introduction to Sociolinguistics," notes, "It is used to assert social position and to keep people in their place, particularly those at the lower end of the social hierarchy" (2006). Different Definition of Diglossia Other definitions of diglossia don't require the social aspect to be present and just concentrate on the plurality, the different languages for different contexts. For example, Catalan (Barcelona) and Castillian (Spain as a whole) Spanish, don't have a social hierarchy to their usage but are regional. The versions of Spanish have enough overlap that they can be understood by speakers of each but are different languages. The same applies to Swiss German and standard German; they are regional. In a bit wider definition of diglossia, it can also include social dialects, even if the languages are not completely separate, distinct languages. In the United States, speakers of dialects such as Ebonics (African American Vernacular English, AAVE), Chicano English (ChE), and Vietnamese English (VE) also function in a diglossic environment. Some people argue that Ebonics has its own grammar and appears related in lineage to Creole languages spoken by enslaved people of the Deep South (African languages melding with English), but others disagree, saying that it's not a separate language but just a dialect. In this wider definition of diglossia, the two languages can also borrow words from each other.
