20.1 What is a ‘standard language’?
Activity 5
The text in this section focuses on how a standard of Scots could be defined. As Scots is closely related to the English language, standardisation of Scots centres in part on the differences between Standard English and a proposed standard of Scots.
To get you thinking about this, we have recorded a number of words for you that look similar in Scots and English, but the pronunciation of these words is different in both languages.
Part 1
Listen to the recording and take a note of the words you think you are hearing and their English translation. Then compare your list with ours in the answer.
| Scots | English |
|---|---|
Answer
Here are the words you should have written:
| Scots | English |
|---|---|
| hunner | hundred |
| grund / gr(o)un / groond | ground |
| found | found |
| en / end | end |
| sound / soond | sound |
| pound / poun / pownd | pond |
| poond / pund / pun / poon | pound |
Note that there are different spellings of these words in Scots. We have selected one spelling for the purposes of this transcript.
Transcript
Listen
hunner gr(o)un found en soond pound poon
Model
hunner gr(o)un found en soond pound poon
A standard language is a form of a language that has been generally agreed upon for public use. This may conform to a dialect of a particular prestige or be a form, which accommodates various language varieties. There is no single Standard English, with different Anglophone nations maintaining English slightly differently. Yet the variations maintained in the conventions are vanishingly small in comparison with the agreement.
When considering standard languages, we can often become quite bibliocentric, becoming focused on the written form of a language, sometimes to the complete exclusion of the spoken language. This is understandable given one can point at the written word and discuss it objectively, whilst the spoken word is objectively a series of utterances which ordinarily vanish as soon as they appear.
In the context of English, we generally consider Standard English to be the written form of English based upon the spoken form of English used in London and codified in the 17th and 18th centuries. This written standard can be considered to be independent of accent.
However, a spoken standard of the English language, although not as strongly adhered to, can be conceptualised. This is most strongly associated with the Received Pronunciation accent in the UK, and outwith the UK, for example, accents such as General American, General Australian or New Dublin English.
In Scotland, the spoken form of Standard English is known as Scottish Standard English. This is the indigenous dialect of English as spoken with a Scots accent. In idealised form, this is no different from Standard English in vocabulary and grammar, but in practice it includes influences from Scots and some innovations of its own. An often cited example would be this form used in Scotland - “amn't” for the standard non-contractable “am not”.
Scots Standard English, it must be noted, came about, at the beginning of the 18th century, through a massive concerted effort of elocution lessons taught to many groups in society and the undermining of Scots in its perception as “a very corrupt Dialect [of English]” (Hume, 1932, p. 225). Initially Scots speakers aspired to speak Standard English with an English accent. When Croker quoted Boswell stating: “I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English pronunciation,” he confirmed, this aspiration proved unattainable (Croker, 1866, p. 232). This led to a situation where it became acceptable to speak English with a Scots accent.
As Standard English became the agreed form of public written communication, Scottish Standard English became the spoken language of administration and education. Yet what of Scots?
Spoken Scots has persisted to this day with, in the 2011 census [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , over 1.5 million people reporting they speak it and 1.9 million reporting they understood it (Scottish Government, 2010). Scots literature persisted with the written language being used in periodicals and books, from poetry and cartooning through to topical political discussion and opinion pieces in newspapers. However, in the Public Attitudes Towards the Scots Language study published by the Scottish Government in 2010, 73% rarely or never read Scots and 83% rarely or never wrote in Scots, whilst only 29% rarely or never spoke Scots. Only 3% read and 2% write in Scots 'a lot' (Webarchive.org.uk).
This study by the Scottish Government presents Scots as a widely spoken language variety whose speakers are perhaps largely illiterate in its written forms. Although, literacy in writing Scots may be growing today with the advent of micro-blogging on social media, endogenous conventions appear to be emerging with no connection to the 700 years of Scots literature prior to these written outputs online. Thus, thoughts of a standard language are intimately bound up with this increasing literacy in Scots in the 21st century.
The minority who do engage in written Scots are presented with a myriad of different approaches to writing this language: from those striving to authentically represent the spoken language of a specific area; to those using language to stereotype a speaker; and those who use the barest minimum of Scots within a largely Standard English text, to those who wish to maximise the difference between Standard English and their sub-textually proposed Standard Scots.
Sometimes a maximalist use of Scots lexicon, or vocabulary, can be so far removed from spoken Scots that it is rejected by Scots speakers. Whilst this is an exemplar of what written Scots can do, it may be argued that it is too far diverged from what written Scots ought to do.
A standard of a language facilitates the memetic communication of this language; it allows people to learn it independently of social immersion and it informs spoken performance of the language. This means, in the case of Scots, that people do speak the maximalist Scots found in the literature and people do change their Scots dialect towards more general usage of both the spoken and written word. As written Scots is increasingly used in public, it will likely level towards a consensual common form. The form this takes, and its uptake will be dependent upon its utility to its users.
Often with Scots, one develops one's literacy on one's own. A person brings their own conscious and unconscious linguistic knowledge, and prejudices to some sort of body of written Scots and finds an expressive solution that satisfies their needs. An agreed standard for public usage need not conflict with this level of engagement with one's own expressive writing. However, a standard worth advocating for ought to draw on as much knowledge about spoken and written Scots as possible.
From here onwards, you will explore some of the issues to do with coming towards a standard form of written Scots touching upon traditional written conventions, dialect variation, pan dialectical spelling and grammar. And once you have explored these aspects, you’ll look more deeply into the shift in language use in Scotland and the emergence of Scottish Standard English. As a next step, you'll investigate what has been done thus far to standardise Scots and finally you'll touch upon language planning.
Activity 6
After reading this section, take a note of the key aspects you learned here.
Answer
This is a model answer. Your notes might be different.
- A standard language is a form of a language that has been generally agreed upon for public use.
- When considering standard languages, we can often become focused on the written form of a language, sometimes to the complete exclusion of the spoken language.
- A standard of a language allows people to learn it independently of social immersion and it informs spoken performance of the language.
- The standard of the English language is most strongly associated with the Received Pronunciation accent in the UK.
- In Scotland, the spoken form of Standard English is known as Scottish Standard English. This is the indigenous dialect of English as spoken with a Scots accent.
- Scots Standard English came about at the beginning of the 18th century through the undermining of Scots in its perception as a ‘corrupt dialect of English’.
- It became acceptable to speak English with a Scots accent.
- As Standard English became the agreed form of public written communication, Scottish Standard English became the spoken language of administration and education.
- Scots today is a widely spoken language variety whose speakers are perhaps largely illiterate in its written forms.
- Increasing literacy in Scots in the 21st century through micro-blogging on social media.
- Often with Scots, one develops one's literacy on one's own.
20. Introductory handsel