A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works. Typically, varieties that become standardized are the local dialects spoken in the centers of commerce and government, where a need arises for a variety that will serve more than local needs. A standard language can be either pluricentric (e.g. English, German, Serbo-Croatian, French, and Portuguese) or monocentric (e.g. Icelandic).
A standard written language is sometimes termed by the German word Schriftsprache.
Read more about Standard Language: Characteristics, List of Standard Languages and Regulators, Examples
Famous quotes containing the words standard and/or language:
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—Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, ch. 1 (1991)
“To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words.... Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”
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