LANGUAGE STANDARDS

Where Do They Come From?

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GRAMMAR

Standards are formal agreements about how language is used that make communication possible.

What if you received a text from someone who… •spoke a different language?

•used language of a different social group?

Might you not fully comprehend?

How did standard English develop?

When did standardization of English happen?

Where did it happen?

The answer to this question brings us to…

….A long time ago...

…on a continent far, far away…

the necessities while also giving time for artistic enjoyment

to organize themselves as a group a maintain In the beginning there was lots of stuff to do for people to find out how they were going

Great Britain stands apart from the rest of Europe because it is separated by water. These seas can be very dangerous, but some crossed them to settle or conquer at different points in early history.

WHO? ……

The Anglo Saxons, in 5th century, clashed

with the Proto-Celtic people already living there.

The Vikings came in the 8th and 9th centuries…

…and William the Conqueror came with the Norman-French in the 11th century.

As each culture came to Britain, it changed the language in some form or another.

That is just the beginning of the history of the English language and how it came to be one of the most irregular and patch-worked languages in the world.

English spoken in the U.S. has also been profoundly impacted by African Americans, who were originally brought to America by Europeans as slaves.

Renaissance (or rebirth) was the time period in Europe after the Middle Ages. It was a time of great progress in technology and science that also saw major flowering of art, culture, and language.

The printing press had a lot to do with these changes. It made the spread of information so much easier than before. The printing press did for the 15th and 16th centuries what the internet did to recent times.

Gutenberg’s printing press, ca 1440

Before the printing press, writing was mainly for the elite or wealthy. The printing press brought an explosion of books (and hence information) that became available to the general public. This gave rise to many new (and different) forms of writing.

For the purposes of academia, people felt the need for certain ground rules so that people from different places could still read each other’s writing.

LANGUAGE VARIATION

Samuel Johnson is widely accepted as having a major impact on the standardization of the English language through his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

Before this, it was common to see different spellings of the same word. In fact, a writer might use different rules for different situations, but this caused confusion in academia.

So, what happened to everyone else’s ideas about how language could be used? Those at the top of the social order established the official standards, but other groups of people hung on to their own rules and words because

We can see (and hear) how people speak differently today based on where they’re from and who they are talking to.

Let’s listen to some variations present within North Carolina that differ from the academic standard.

Sample of urban African American speech

Sample of Appalachian speech

To someone unfamiliar with a type of language, it may seem funny or confusing.

One great way to understand and appreciate different cultures is to study the rules that govern the type of language that they use.

Within academics, this type of study is called Linguistics.

Picture References

Proto-Celticshttp://john844.org/images/proto-kelts-hallstatt-culture

Anglo Saxonhttp://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/topic/30061-eu-to-conquer-anglo-saxons-and-jews/

Vikingshttp://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/topic/30061-eu-to-conquer-anglo-saxons-and-jews/

William The Conquerorhttp://sd-10807.dedibox.fr/show_items-feed=ba8d5c65e50c3e5536b41225cf1c4296?page=1

Picture for confusing text messagehttp://www.visualphotos.com/image/1x8706253/confused_man_reading_text_message

Gutenberg’s printing presshttp://mallorykeeler.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-gutenberg-press-1440s/

Samuel Johnsonhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/09/biography