Since the turn of the century, our
society has developed in many ways that has affected the use of our everyday
language and the prestigious status of Standard English. One of the main
contributing factors to this is the development of the multi-cultural society
that we live in. In 2001, statistics showed that 58% of people living in the UK
are white British, leaving 42% as other ethnic minorities. This increase has
not only brought other languages to the UK but this also means that the English
language has been adapted and used in different ways by a number of different
groups; this has led to many variations from Standard English. As well as this,
the introduction of new technology has brought many neologisms which has also
changed our language. It can be argued that this has affected the status of
Standard English, however I only agree with this to a certain extent.
Firstly, the innovation of technology
and technological advances within this century have been ground-breaking. They
have pushed our society further and have helped us to reach new potentials.
Moreover, it has created a whole list of additions to the English Language.
With the increase in popularity of social media sites and messaging,
abbreviations, emojis, and slang words have become an essential part of
English. With technology, laziness has increased majorly. This is evident in
the wide use of abbreviations and phonetic representation that has become a
trend. This has affected the status of Standard English by decreasing the
amount of people that use it in its’ correct form. Abbreviations create
understandable messages without the need for proper words, and emojis create a
whole new language in itself where words aren’t needed. As the popularity of
social media and messaging has increased, Standard English has become less
common. It could be argued that ‘text talk’ has robbed Standard English of its’
prestigious status.
Another way in which technology has
affected Standard English is through predictive text. Whilst using a mobile
phone to communicate, words become suggested for the user to pick from and
there is automatic spellcheck. This has enhanced the laziness of humans as we
now no longer have to think about what we want to say when we write, but it
appears for us. Furthermore, the use of these smartphones has become
increasingly common within young children. Through this, children are not
learning the correct form of English, which may affect their education and
written communication in a negative way. Spelling and proper grammar is an essential
part of Standard English, and therefore, this is being limited by the use of
technology as the ability to do this is being withdrawn from the future, as
children may be unable to use standard forms without their phone. This means
that the status of Standard English has been affected and will be continuously
affected, lessening its high status.
Furthermore, since the turn of the
century, there has been a lot of immigration, consequently, our society has
become very multi-cultural. This has resulted in a number of different
languages being brought into Britain which has led to the creation of creole
and the convergence of languages. This means that the social actors in Britain
have been exposed to this mixture of languages, which has affected the language
that they use. In my own research about the attitudes towards language, I found
that 65% of people believe that the language that they use is influenced by
other around them. This demonstrates how the Standard form of English has been
adapted and manipulated in many ways in order to fit in with somebody’s own
preferences and for their convenience rather than used properly. I think that
this has affected the status of Standard English by decreasing its use and
disguising the standard form as the most profound form of English has become a
mixture of different creoles.
My research also shows that Standard
English is still the most respected variation of the language with the highest
respect. This shows that even though our society is culturally rich, people
still have the perception that supports the sociolinguists Trudgill’s theory.
He says that the majority opinion was that the ‘Queen’s English’ held prestige
over other variations of English and that every other variation was improper
and ‘bad English’. An example of this is ‘road man talk’, which is the general
term for language used by black people. ‘Roadman’ refers to a person who is
young, and delinquent. This means that the language used by them may be of a
low register and they also used many words that are made up or they cause words
to have a semantic shift. Typically, the language that ‘roadmen’ uses
originates from Black English Vernacular. This suggests that Standard English
still has a high status because the general attitude of the convergence of
other cultures into our language is negative, therefore it can be concluded
that Standard English is preferred.
Additionally, the separation of the
social classes has affected the status of Standard English. Different social
classes stereotypically have different attitudes. It is a stereotype that
people of the middle class or above look down to those that choose not to use
Receive Pronunciation and on slang. This suggests that the status of Standard
English has remained prestigious because the middle and upper class use it and
will automatically make assumptions based on the use of non-standard English by
the working class and will view them in a negative way. This means that people
who consider themselves to use ‘the best English’, may look down upon those who
do not as poor and uneducated. Therefore, this allows Standard English to hold
onto its high status.
Overall, I only agree to a certain
extent that the status of Standard English has changed since the start of the
century. This is because although there is some evidence for the decrease in
use of Standard English, it is evident from my research that it is still
favoured over other forms of English.
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