STANDARD ENGLISH
A MODEL: BRITISH, OR AMERICAN
The standard variety of a language emerges out of the political and economic influence of its users. Parisian French and Bangalore-Mysore Kannada are considered the standard varieties of those languages because Paris and Mysore were the centres of the king and the aristocracy.
Notice that this is similar to the way English became an international language, because of the political and economic power of English-speaking countries.
"Standard English may be simply considered as that dialect most often spoken by educated members of society: it is the form usually employed in writing, and is generally used by the media", says John Edwards, a linguist.
Standard English, he says, is also the form of the language used and promoted in schools (in Britain and the United States, the schools iron out the differences between the various regional dialects that the children speak in their homes).
For us in India, in the written mode, British English has functioned as a model of standard English in our schools.
Spoken English, we know, varies considerably even from person to person; we have said that our aim should be at a neutral, intelligible accent that bears the stamp of our individuality, But written language, we saw in the last unit, has always been much less subject to change.
It has been the preserve of scholars and grammarians. Written language has traditionally been in a more formal, careful, considered style (although that is changing now in emails, perhaps).
So for written language we do feel the need for a standard; and because of the historical accident of our having been part of the British Empire, we have adopted British English as our model.
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