standard language

standard language (plural standard languages)

1. (sociolinguistics) A form of a language that is institutionally promoted, regarded as the most "correct" or neutral variety; used by a population for public and formal purposes.

   Synonyms: standard, standard dialect, standard variety

   • 2014, Stephan Elspaß, Prescriptive norms and norms of usage in nineteenth-century German, University of Salzburg [Gijsbert Rutten, Rik Vosters, Wim Vandenbussche, Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective, John Benjamins Publishing Company] p. 303:

     In modern standard languages, norms of usage often seem to be superimposed by prescriptive norms.

2. (sociolinguistics) A language that has a standard form as one of its varieties; a language that has undergone standardization.

   Synonym: standardized language

   • 1978, James E. Alatis, International Dimensions of Bilingual Education, Georgetown University Press, page xii:

     Some remain clusters of dialects like those of the Pamirs; others are at varying levels of stabilisation; some may be young standard languages, having only recently achieved that status; [...]

   • 1994, Suzanne Romaine, Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 85:

     Not all standard languages have the backing of institutions such as the Académie française. English is a good example of a standard language without such a regulatory body.

• literary language
• Modern Standard Arabic
• Standard English
• Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin)
• Standard German

• Finegan, Edward (2007) Language: Its Structure and Use‎, Boston: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 14
• Coulmas, Florian (2017) An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World, Oxford University Press, p. 48, →ISBN