Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
How standard language is a dialect with an army and a school
A standard is a dialect backed by the state and taught as the correct one.
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From the opening
A standard language is a dialect that institutions have elevated: it is the variety of laws, exams, official writing, and usually of the capital or of a powerful class. The remark associated with Max Weinreich, that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy, makes the political half obvious; a school is the other half, the place where one variety is drilled in as correct. The opening covers a variety the state can require, schools teach it as the correct one, and borders relabel dialect and language.
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Inside
- A variety the state can require
- Schools teach it as the correct one
- Borders relabel dialect and language
- More than one standard can be crowned
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Max Weinreich's remark on a language as a dialect with an army and a navy
- National standard languages elevated from particular regional dialects