The emergence of Standard English

1. Every language usually has more than one variety, especially in speech. The variety usually labelled Standard English forms the basis of printed English in newspapers and books; it is used in the mass media and is taught in schools. Concerning the notion of Standard English, it is possible to distinguish between: the literary standard, the spoken standard, and vulgar speech. It is diffi­cult to draw a sharp line of demarcation between these three types.

The spoken standard is heard in the conversation of educated people who are conscious of their speech.

The written standard is the language of books (both poetry and cultivated prose).

Illiterate (vulgar) speech is the language of those who are ignorant of the ideas of correctness. The difference between the spoken standard and vulgar speech is in their association with dif­ferent social classes in modern times·.

2. The emergence of Standard English started in the Middle English pe­riod. This period is characterized by dialectal diversity. The four principal dialectal areas of Middle English are: Northern, East Midland, West Midland and Southern. The Northern dialect extends from the North of England as far south as the Humber river; East Midland and West Midland together cover the area between the Humber and the Thames; Southern is spread in the district south of the Thames.

Each dialect has some peculiarities at different levels of the language system in pronunciation, in vocabulary, in grammar. A. C. Baugh and Th. Cable provide illustrations from O. E. inflecting morphology. InOld English the plural, present indicative of verbs always ended in ' -th with some variation of the preceding vowel. In Middle English it was preserved as -eth in the Southern dialect, replaced by -en in the Midland district and altered to -es in the North [191]. Cf.:

lov eth

lov en we, they, you love

lov es

Dialectal differences were more noticeable between Northern and Southern areas, the Midland dialect occupies an intermediate position

Scandinavian influence was greater in the Northern dialect. The forms of the pronoun 'they' in the south were: 'hi, here (hire), hem'. In Modern English words with the initial 'y' continue Southern forms: Cf.:

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