Standard/ standardized dialect
A standard language is that variety of language which is most associated with specific groups (usually educated people or those with a high status and authority within society). It is used for a particular functions (for example writing, education, radio and television) which serve a wide and diverse community of speakers (Mesthrie, Swann, Demerit &Leap, and 2000:20).
A standard language is thus the formal, grammatically correct and acceptable use of language. The standard language is simply one variety of language which was selected and developed as the standard. It follows then, that the varieties that were not selected for standardization are often refers to as non-standard varieties. There is nothing inferior about these varieties they are capable of expressing the full range of meanings that a standard variety may, although they may lack the scientific or technological vocabulary which has been developed for standard. d���x
PROCESSES OF STANDARDISATION
During the process of standardization, a language goes through various processes, namely selection, codification, elaboration, and acceptance. Selection this stage entails choosing the dialect to be used as the standard form picking the dialect which are then unified or harmonized to form the standard language. In most, various factors are taken into account in the selection process. First, the chosen dialect must be accepted by the speakers of other dialects.it will be necessary for all speakers to compromise many aspects of language, such as grammar, phonological a scientific principles.
Codification has to do with the development of writing .during this process the lexicographers has to decide which words to include in the dictionary as part of the standard variety, which form to mark as dialectal ,in which to omit altogether. Acceptance should followed directly after selection because in order for a language to be selected and codified it needs to be accepted by the community of speakers. Yet acceptance should follow elaboration because a speech community must continue to accept the standard form once it has reached the stable stage.
The difference between non-standard and standard language
Standard language arise when certain dialect begins to be used in written form, normally throughout a broader area than that of a dialect itself. The ways in which these languages is used for an example: in administrative matters, literature, and economic life lead to the minimization of linguistic variation. South Africa’s first democratic Constitution, which came into effect in 1996, recognizes 11 official languages, to which the state guarantees equal status. These are isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho as Leboa (Northern Sotho) Setswana, Sesotho (southern Sotho) Xitsonga, SiSwati, Tshivenda, isiNdebele, Afrikaans and English. Thus the Constitution rejects the historical apartheid English Afrikaans bilingual policy, and recognizes the majority of the indigenous African languages .at the same time it should be noted that languages chosen as official ones in 1994 were in fact standardized under the apartheid government, which established language boards.
A non- Standard language
A non-standard or dialect refers to a language associated with a regionally, or socially defined group of people (Makoni et al, 2003.84). According to Wilson and Henry (1998:14) differences found in non-standard language variety has equivalents within the standard grammar. This means non-standard variations are embedded structurally equivalent grammars: standard and non-standard varieties are therefore merely dialects of same language. The non-standard isiZulu variety, if even if grammatically different or innovative, is still intelligible to isiZulu speakers. Linguistic diversity not only endures, but prevails however, non-standard accents and other forms of linguistic diversity would be counterproductive in society with a great deal of mobility ( Chambers,1995:212,230) .on one hand , every language is flexible enough to admit new elements to enhance its efficiency and on the other hand its speakers often resist the newly formed terms. City non-standard varieties are a result of social developments such industrialization, geography, age gender/sex, register, mode, tenor, style, diglossia, and social class (education, occupation and income). One of these examples for isiZulu is isiTsotsi (Tsotsitaal). In Our group we selected isiZulu as one of the Nguni languages in South Africa as an an example of theoretical foundation dealing with standard versus non-standard language, preferably because we are all isiZulu speakers in our group and its Heritage month.
References
Ndlovu, C., 2005. From an African Village to GLasgow. 2nd ed. Glasgow: Wits University Press.
Rajend Mesthrie, J. S., 2000. Introducing Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: William L. Leap.
Sin Free Makoni, G. S., 2003. Black linguistics. 1st ed. USA& CANADA: Routledge.
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