"Standard" English

Apropos of our conversation today, here is what seems to be a pretty good summary of Standard English and the controversy surrounding it. A couple of highlights:

"Historically, we can say that Standard English was selected (though of course, unlike many other languages, not by any overt or conscious decision) as the variety to become the standard variety precisely because it was the variety associated with the social group with the highest degree of power, wealth and prestige. Subsequent developments have reinforced its social character: the fact that it has been employed as the dialect of an education to which pupils, especially in earlier centuries, have had differential access depending on their social class background."

"So those who make authoritative pronouncements about a standard English are simply those who, irrespective of accidents of birth, have elevated themselves, or been elevated, to positions of authority in academe or publishing or in other public areas. Whether or not their pronouncements will continue to be accepted is another matter."

"[Standard English] is the variety of English which carries most prestige within a country... In the words of one US linguist, SE is 'the English used by the powerful.'"