ISSUES IN STANDARDIZING AMERICAN ENGLISH

What does it mean standardizing?

Standardizing is the process of development of a standard for written and/or

oral language.

It occurs in a specific manner that depends on the community and the social,
historical and geographic aspects involved.

At a certain point usually there is a prescriptive effort to develop a standard.

How do varieties become standard?

By a series of resources such as:

 A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary) noah

webster
 A recognized grammar
 A standard pronunciation (educated speech)
 A linguistic institution defining usage norms, e.g. Académie française,
or Real Academia Española
 Constitutional (legal) status (frequently as an official language)
 Effective public use (court, legislature, schools)
 A literary canon
 Convenience speaking
 Popularity and acceptance in the community
 Population

Why establishing a standard?

Desire for national (cultural, political, and social) cohesion

Sociopolitical issues

Different factors affect how a language is spoken or written within a country.

They can be regional (geographical), ethnic (national and racial), and social (class,
age, gender, socioeconomic status and education). All these factors are
interconnected. They are reflected in every language variety’s pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammatical constructions and syntax.

One of the common misunderstandings of speakers of any language is the

question of standard and non-standard varieties of the language. The latter is often
called a dialect, and people who speak it are considered to be inferior to the
speakers of the standard variety. However, it is erroneous to believe that the
standard variety is the ‘correct’ one. Every language has dialects, and no dialect is
substandard to other dialects. We all speak a dialect and we all have an accent.

The issue of standard vs. non-standard variety of a language is not a

linguistic one, but political. The standard dialect is associated with prestige in the
society. That is why many people prefer it to other varieties. Some people feel
pressured to use the standard dialect to conform to the rules of the society.
However, some speakers of a non-standard dialect prefer to use it to demonstrate
their sense of belonging to their community or social/ethnic group.

We can often associate specific items or events with standardization, e.g.,

john Adams who was interested in standardizing American English to maintain the
purity of the language that is why he proposed establishing an English language
academy, a public institution for refining, correcting improving and ascertaining the
English language. He hoped that such an institution would have benefits on the
union of the states and would serve as an standard for all people in the new
country. But unfortunately his proposal met with little success. The continental
congress neither was nor convinced of the importance of the academy to the
American goals.

Noah Webster a New England lawyer and scholar also tried to promote
language standardization. Webster argued that even the smallest regional
differences in spelling and pronunciation could turn into political difference,
resulting in dangerous factions. So he traveled around the U.S. giving lectures
about standardizing the English language, and in his travels he met Benjamin
Franklin, who shared Webster’s concerns about language reform. Franklin
proposed deleting the letters c, w, y, and j and adding six new letters to the
American alphabet. Webster, however, did not like the idea of adding or
subtracting letters, but rather he wanted to simplify the spelling of words—changing
favour to favor, for example, or replacing the -re with -er in centre/center and
theatre/theater, in order to match spelling with pronunciation. Webster’s speller,
which he first published in 1783, and his American Dictionary of the English
Language (1828) helped to facilitate homogenization. Also in this time period,
printers began to standardize spelling in order to make the printing process more
efficient.

If the main transmitters of general American or network standard are th tv

newspaper and radio announcers, then the main enforces of the proper use of
standard American English are school teachers. English teachers have long been
engaged in the teaching of what they regard as proper English. In general, public
education has been seen as one of the main standardizing influences in the United
States. The ideologists behind the efforts by school teachers are the language
educators who provided them with the rationale for their struggle. The main
argument of the language educators has been for a long time that the English
language in America is constantly deteriorating and that the process will lead to its
death.

A different but related attempt to standardize American English is more

politically oriented. In 1983 an organization called us English was established
under the leadership of the linguist senator Hayakawa to make English the official
language in the united states the us constitution does not state that English is the
official language of the country this causes fear among members of the group.
They are concerned that languages other than English (e.g. Spanish) might
overtake the role of English as the virtual official language in some areas the
pressure group has been relatively successful. As a result of their effort English
was made the official language in several states.

ISSUES IN STANDARDIZING AMERICAN ENGLISH

STANDARDIZING = Process of development of a standard for written and/or oral

language

By a series of resources such as:

A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary)

 Noah Webster → simplify the spelling of words

changing favour to favor, for example,
replacing the -re with -er in centre/center

in order to match spelling with pronunciation

Webster’s speller 1783,
American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

A linguistic institution defining usage norms, e.g. Académie française, or Real

Academia Española

 John Adamsmaintain the purity of the language by establishing an English

language academy

Constitutional (legal) status (frequently as an official language)

  linguist senator Hayakawa

Leader of us English→ wanted to make English the official language in the

united states the us constitution does not state that English is the official
language of the country this causes fear among members of the group.

Effective public use (court, legislature, schools)

 Teachers and educators → teaching of what they regard as proper English

the English language in America is constantly deteriorating