Standard English | History of English | Essay

Running head: HISTORY OF ENGLISH
HISTORY OF ENGLISH
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HISTORY OF ENGLISH
Introduction
Standard English is known as a specific dialect of English, which is the only non-
localised language, linked with international currency without noteworthy variation and
globally established as the suitable scholastic object in teaching the language of English. The
Standard English can be spoken with an open choice of pronunciation. According to Kerswill
(2006), in an English-speaking country like England, Standard English (SE) is considered as
the range of English that has experienced extensive regularization and is further linked to
formal education, linguistic assessment as well as authorized print publications for
example, public-service statements and newspapers of record (Bauer, 2016). Thus, Standard
English must be unspoken in order to explain the process of regularization as well as
maintain its desirability such as a standard of care or inter-changeability that is a standard
measure. In the domain of SE, language is principally speech. According to Freeborn et al.
(2016), speech is known as the representation of the understandings of the mind. On the
other hand, in deliberating Standard English many differences are found between the methods
of speaking and writing. Writing is recognized as not simply speech that is being
documented. Moreover, learning to write is not an ordinary allowance of learning to speak. In
contrast to speech, writing necessitates systematic instruction as well as practice. The
following paper will provide an analysis of spoken standard of English in modern English
period since 1500. It will also focus on speakers’ attitudes to this variety and whether there
had been any resistance to its development.
Discussion
Relationship between ‘Standard English’ and ‘non-standard’ in the mid and late Victorian
Period
Ideas related to ‘Standard English’ be determined by the social as well as economic
connections among segments of the people in a certain period and place. These ideas also

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HISTORY OF ENGLISH
depend on the thoughts and ideologies which are associated with these social conditions
(Kerswill, 2006). This is highly apparent in the growth of an acceptance in a ‘standard’
pronunciation in Britain. According to Kerswill (2006), England in the Victorian witnessed
an unparalleled social transformation along with the development of an urban working class.
During this period, the term ‘Standard English’ was referred to a form of the English
language which exhibited great universality and shared in the nineteenth century. The mid
and late Victorian period linked itself with social class and was observed by number of
scholars as the language of the educated (Kerswill, 2006). According to Migdadi et al.
(2020), in relation to this, nothing significant has changed since the nineteenth century. Even
in recent times, Standard English is still written and spoken by British people who belong to
the highest, social status and as a result are the most persuasive, cultured, esteemed and
prosperous section in the United Kingdom. Hence, Standard English is believed to be of high
esteem within society. According to Freeborn et al. (2016), through the understanding of the
“Working Dialect”, the attempt to surpass the Standard English and its collective power
depended on range of British texts documented in the nineteenth-century. These texts ranged
from the local periodicals to official narratives, from North to South as well as from working
to the middle-class readers. Working Dialect had aimed to illustrate the contradictions of
North and South through an interdisciplinary study of nonstandard language as it reflected in
the mid and late Victorian texts (Migdadi et al., 2020). Furthermore, with the richness of
grammar and pronunciation guides wide range of speakers had been clamouring in order to
obtain the phonology, morphology as well as grammar of the standard. At this juncture, it is
imperative to note that not every writer had the authority to the prescriptivism that would
downgrade atypical languages to the linguistic as well as literary limitations. As per studies,
the writers who belonged to the mid and late Victorian period showed complications
(Kerswill, 2006). On the non-standard English had been perceived to be “unrefined” and