Pluricentric language
Encyclopedia
A pluricentric language is a language with several standard
versions, both in spoken and in written forms
. This situation usually arises when language and the national identity of its native speaker
s do not, or did not, coincide.
in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, etc. between the United Kingdom, North America, South Africa and Australia. There is also dialectal variety within these areas, as well as among other English-speaking countries. It is usually considered a symmetric case of a pluricentric language, because there is no clear cultural dominance of one variety over others.
Statistically, however, American English
speakers constitute more than 66% of native English speakers, with British English
in second place at 18% and other varieties such as Australian English
and Canadian English
having up to 7% each. Due to globalisation in recent decades, English is becoming increasingly decentralised, with daily use and state-wide study of the language in schools growing at a rapid rate in most regions of the world.
British English was formerly dominant in the education systems of most regions where English was taught as a second language
. In former colonies where English is not the first language
of the majority of the population, such as Malaysia, India, Pakistan
, and Singapore
, British English remains strong, and is also the primary form taught in the European Union
and the rest of Europe. In some regions of the world, the use of General American
is accelerating, sometimes outpacing British English in popularity among student and business users.
Other varieties of English, including Australian
, New Zealand
, and Canadian English
, are taught to those wishing to reside in or do business with those particular countries but are far less common in the instruction of general English classes internationally.
Some, such as the case of the different Philippine varieties
, are even stigmatized. As a recent development, Filipinos
try to "polish" their accent to make it resemble an American accent more closely. This change was brought about by the recent bloom of the out-sourcing (mainly in forms of service call centers) in the country.
The pluricentrity of English is not a recent phenomenon. There is ample evidence that before the Acts of Union 1707
, Scots
was considered to be a language of its own, representing a separate standard language within a wider Anglic family of languages.
is the name used for the same language that is called Catalan
in Andorra
, the Balearic Islands
and Catalonia
, among other places. Valencian is the official name of the language in the Valencian Community
and has its own writing rules dictated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
, created in 1998. This institution recognises that Catalan and Valencian are different local forms of the same language—mutually intelligible to all speakers—with no single accepted common name. The University of the Balearic Islands
is in charge of the rules of the different Balearic forms, that have not had a traditional common local name (Majorcan in Majorca, Minorcan in Minorca
). However, given that the syncretic and academic name Catalan-Valencian-Balearic has not succeeded—beyond the title of an excellent dictionary
and the name given by Ethnologue
—Catalan is generally the colloquial name accepted by linguists to refer to the whole system. It is an asymmetric case of a pluricentric language, due to the current pre-eminence of the Central Catalan dialect and the (sometimes questioned) origin of the language in the southern communities during the Reconquista
.
, has been pluricentric since the mid-20th century, when simplified Chinese characters were introduced in the People's Republic of China. Simplified characters are now official in the PRC and Singapore
, while traditional Chinese character
s, the system originally used in Chinese-speaking societies before the advent of simplified characters, remain in use elsewhere, including Hong Kong, Macau
, the Republic of China
(Taiwan
) and many overseas Chinese
communities.
is the official Chinese language of China, Taiwan and Singapore, while Cantonese
is de facto
official in Hong Kong and Macau
and one of traditional language in Singapore and Malaysia. Hokkien
is sometimes used with official language function in Taiwan and also one of traditional language in Singapore and Malaysia. There are a few differences in the spoken standard promulgated in the PRC and the ROC (Taiwan). Some of the vocabulary is different and a few words are officially pronounced with different tones
. See Taiwanese Mandarin
for more details on the differences. This site also lists the differences in the pronunciation standards.
, which is distinct from Quebec French
and is spoken mainly in the Maritime
provinces, especially New Brunswick
. Acadian is marked by differences in pronunciation, intonation, and vocabulary. Both Acadian and Québécois feature pronunciation considered archaic in other varieties.
Minor standards can also be found in Belgium and Switzerland, with a particular influence of Germanic languages on grammar and vocabulary, sometimes through the influence of local dialects. In Belgium for example, various Germanic influences in the spoken French are evident in Walloon (for example, to blink in English, German and Dutch, blinquer in Walloon
and local French, clignoter in standard French). Ring (rocade or périphérique in standard French) is a common word in the three national languages for beltway or ring road.
is often considered an asymmetric case of a pluricentric language, because the standard used in Germany is often considered dominant, mostly because of the sheer number of its speakers and their frequent lack of awareness of the Austrian German
and Swiss Standard German
varieties. While there is a uniform stage pronunciation based on a manual by Theodor Siebs
which is used in theatres, and, nowadays to a lesser extent, in radio and television news all across German-speaking countries, this is not true for the standards applied at public occasions in Austria, South Tyrol and Switzerland, which differ in pronunciation
, vocabulary
, and sometimes even grammar
. Sometimes this even applies to news broadcasts in Bavaria
, a German state with a strong separate cultural identity. The varieties of Standard German used in those regions are to some degree influenced by the respective dialect
s (but by no means identical with them), by specific cultural traditions (e.g. in culinary vocabulary, which differs markedly across the German-speaking area of Europe), and by different terminology employed in law and administration. A list of Austrian terms for certain food items has even been incorporated into EU law, even though it is clearly incomplete.
is a large dialect continuum
defined as a unit culturally. In addition to the national lingua franca Hindi-Urdu, sometimes called Hindustani
, which is based on a Persianized
register of the Khariboli
dialect and has two modern standard forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu
, there are historical literary standards such as Braj Bhasha (closely related) and Awadhi (not so close), as well as more recently established standard languages based on what were once considered Hindi dialects, Maithili
and Dogri
. Other varieties, such as Rajasthani, are often considered distinct languages but have no standard form.
and European Portuguese
. Both varieties have undergone significant and divergent developments in phonology and the grammar of their pronominal
systems. Brazilian Portuguese is considerably more conservative in its phonology, but much less conservative in its grammar. The result is that communication between the two varieties of the language without previous exposure can be occasionally difficult, especially for a Brazilian attempting to understand a European. Because of the extensive and long-term influence of the Brazilian telenovelas, a Portuguese national has little problem in understanding the Brazilian accent and specific words.
Brazilian and European Portuguese currently have two distinct, albeit similar, spelling standards. A unified orthography
for the two varieties (including a limited number of words with dual spelling) has been recently approved by the national legislatures of Brazil and Portugal and is now official; see Spelling reforms of Portuguese
for additional details. Formal written standards remain grammatically close to each other, despite some minor syntactic differences.
African Portuguese
is based on the European dialect, but has undergone its own phonetic and grammatical developments, sometimes reminiscent of spoken Brazilian.
is a special case. Originally the same language, it has lost almost all contact with Portuguese since the 14th century. Nowadays, a Galician standard has emerged which is still very close to European Portuguese. In pronunciation, however, each branch has gone very different ways, and as a result communication may be difficult at first. To a Galician speaker, Portuguese sounds like a kind of Galician with most vowels left out, whereas to a Portuguese speaker Galician may sometimes sound like Portuguese with a Spanish accent. The latter because most speakers of Galician in the cities have learned it as a second language after Spanish.
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
versions, both in spoken and in written forms
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
. This situation usually arises when language and the national identity of its native speaker
Native Speaker
Native Speaker is Chang-Rae Lee’s first novel. In Native Speaker, he creates a man named Henry Park who tries to assimilate into American society and become a “native speaker.”-Plot summary:...
s do not, or did not, coincide.
English
English is a pluricentric language, with numerous differencesAmerican and British English differences
This is one of a series of articles about the differences between British English and American English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows:...
in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, etc. between the United Kingdom, North America, South Africa and Australia. There is also dialectal variety within these areas, as well as among other English-speaking countries. It is usually considered a symmetric case of a pluricentric language, because there is no clear cultural dominance of one variety over others.
Statistically, however, American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
speakers constitute more than 66% of native English speakers, with British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
in second place at 18% and other varieties such as Australian English
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
and Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
having up to 7% each. Due to globalisation in recent decades, English is becoming increasingly decentralised, with daily use and state-wide study of the language in schools growing at a rapid rate in most regions of the world.
British English was formerly dominant in the education systems of most regions where English was taught as a second language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
. In former colonies where English is not the first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
of the majority of the population, such as Malaysia, India, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, British English remains strong, and is also the primary form taught in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the rest of Europe. In some regions of the world, the use of General American
General American
General American , also known as Standard American English , is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States...
is accelerating, sometimes outpacing British English in popularity among student and business users.
Other varieties of English, including Australian
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....
, New Zealand
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...
, and Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
, are taught to those wishing to reside in or do business with those particular countries but are far less common in the instruction of general English classes internationally.
Some, such as the case of the different Philippine varieties
Philippine English
Philippine English is the variety of English used in the Philippines by the media and the vast majority of educated Filipinos. English is taught in schools as one of the two official languages of the country, the other being Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog.English is used in education,...
, are even stigmatized. As a recent development, Filipinos
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
try to "polish" their accent to make it resemble an American accent more closely. This change was brought about by the recent bloom of the out-sourcing (mainly in forms of service call centers) in the country.
The pluricentrity of English is not a recent phenomenon. There is ample evidence that before the Acts of Union 1707
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
, Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
was considered to be a language of its own, representing a separate standard language within a wider Anglic family of languages.
Catalan-Valencian-Balearic
This is an example of a situation that arises from the fact that languages and the national identities of their native speakers do not always coincide. ValencianValencian
Valencian is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community. There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator...
is the name used for the same language that is called Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
in Andorra
Andorra
Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, , is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of...
, the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, among other places. Valencian is the official name of the language in the Valencian Community
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...
and has its own writing rules dictated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua , also known by the acronym AVL, is an institution created on September 16, 1998 by the Valencian Parliament, which belongs to the set of official institutions that compose the Generalitat Valenciana, according to the Act of Autonomy of the Valencian...
, created in 1998. This institution recognises that Catalan and Valencian are different local forms of the same language—mutually intelligible to all speakers—with no single accepted common name. The University of the Balearic Islands
University of the Balearic Islands
The University of the Balearic Islands is a Balearic Spanish university, founded in 1978 and located in Palma on the island of Majorca.-History:...
is in charge of the rules of the different Balearic forms, that have not had a traditional common local name (Majorcan in Majorca, Minorcan in Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
). However, given that the syncretic and academic name Catalan-Valencian-Balearic has not succeeded—beyond the title of an excellent dictionary
Antoni Maria Alcover i Sureda
Father Antoni Maria Alcover i Sureda, also known as Mossèn Alcover , was a modernist Majorcan writer, who wrote on a wide range of subjects including the Church, folklore and linguistics. He is chiefly associated with efforts to revive interest in the Catalan language and its dialects...
and the name given by Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
—Catalan is generally the colloquial name accepted by linguists to refer to the whole system. It is an asymmetric case of a pluricentric language, due to the current pre-eminence of the Central Catalan dialect and the (sometimes questioned) origin of the language in the southern communities during the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
.
Writing system
Chinese, at least in terms of its writing systemWriting system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
, has been pluricentric since the mid-20th century, when simplified Chinese characters were introduced in the People's Republic of China. Simplified characters are now official in the PRC and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, while traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese characters refers to Chinese characters in any character set which does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. It most commonly refers to characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong, or in the Kangxi...
s, the system originally used in Chinese-speaking societies before the advent of simplified characters, remain in use elsewhere, including Hong Kong, Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
(Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
) and many overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
communities.
Spoken Chinese
MandarinStandard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
is the official Chinese language of China, Taiwan and Singapore, while Cantonese
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
is de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
official in Hong Kong and Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
and one of traditional language in Singapore and Malaysia. Hokkien
Hokkien
Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere....
is sometimes used with official language function in Taiwan and also one of traditional language in Singapore and Malaysia. There are a few differences in the spoken standard promulgated in the PRC and the ROC (Taiwan). Some of the vocabulary is different and a few words are officially pronounced with different tones
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
. See Taiwanese Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin is a variant of Mandarin derived from the official Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan Area of the Republic of China . The latter's standard lect is known in Taiwan as 國語 , based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect together with the grammar of Vernacular Chinese...
for more details on the differences. This site also lists the differences in the pronunciation standards.
French
The three main standards of the French language are Parisian (Standard) French, Standard Canadian French (Québécois), and a more neutral International French (used in media and in teaching). The last typically represents a French marked by much greater use of archaic vocabulary no longer current in metropolitan France. Official Québécois also makes a conscious effort not to borrow foreign vocabulary (creating such words as "stationnement" for "parking", the English word used in French from France), making it prone to continued divergence from European. At the same time, live Québécois has more English borrowings than accepted by the Académie Française as "proper" French. There is also a variety of French, AcadianAcadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
, which is distinct from Quebec French
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....
and is spoken mainly in the Maritime
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
provinces, especially New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. Acadian is marked by differences in pronunciation, intonation, and vocabulary. Both Acadian and Québécois feature pronunciation considered archaic in other varieties.
Minor standards can also be found in Belgium and Switzerland, with a particular influence of Germanic languages on grammar and vocabulary, sometimes through the influence of local dialects. In Belgium for example, various Germanic influences in the spoken French are evident in Walloon (for example, to blink in English, German and Dutch, blinquer in Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
and local French, clignoter in standard French). Ring (rocade or périphérique in standard French) is a common word in the three national languages for beltway or ring road.
German
By contrast, Standard GermanStandard German
Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
is often considered an asymmetric case of a pluricentric language, because the standard used in Germany is often considered dominant, mostly because of the sheer number of its speakers and their frequent lack of awareness of the Austrian German
Austrian German
Austrian German , or Austrian Standard German, is the national standard variety of the German language spoken in Austria and in the autonomous Province of South Tyrol...
and Swiss Standard German
Swiss Standard German
Swiss Standard German, referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, or Hochdeutsch, is one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian and Romansh...
varieties. While there is a uniform stage pronunciation based on a manual by Theodor Siebs
Theodor Siebs
Theodor Siebs was a German linguist most remembered today as the author of Deutsche Bühnenaussprache published in 1898...
which is used in theatres, and, nowadays to a lesser extent, in radio and television news all across German-speaking countries, this is not true for the standards applied at public occasions in Austria, South Tyrol and Switzerland, which differ in pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, and sometimes even grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
. Sometimes this even applies to news broadcasts in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, a German state with a strong separate cultural identity. The varieties of Standard German used in those regions are to some degree influenced by the respective dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s (but by no means identical with them), by specific cultural traditions (e.g. in culinary vocabulary, which differs markedly across the German-speaking area of Europe), and by different terminology employed in law and administration. A list of Austrian terms for certain food items has even been incorporated into EU law, even though it is clearly incomplete.
Hindi, Urdu and Hindi-influenced languages
HindiHindi belt
The Hindi Belt or Hindi Heartland is a loosely defined linguistic region in North and Central India where Hindi languages are widely spoken, either as primary or secondary languages....
is a large dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
defined as a unit culturally. In addition to the national lingua franca Hindi-Urdu, sometimes called Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
, which is based on a Persianized
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
register of the Khariboli
Khariboli
Khariboli , also Khari Boli, Khadiboli, Khadi Boli or simply Khari, is a Western Hindi dialect spoken mainly in the rural surroundings of Delhi, the northern areas of Western Uttar Pradesh and the southern areas of Uttarakhand in India...
dialect and has two modern standard forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, there are historical literary standards such as Braj Bhasha (closely related) and Awadhi (not so close), as well as more recently established standard languages based on what were once considered Hindi dialects, Maithili
Maithili language
Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...
and Dogri
Dogri language
Dogri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million people in Pakistan and India, chiefly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, but also in northern Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, other parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere. Dogri speakers are called Dogras, and the Dogri-speaking...
. Other varieties, such as Rajasthani, are often considered distinct languages but have no standard form.
Portuguese
Portuguese varies mainly between Brazilian PortugueseBrazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
and European Portuguese
European Portuguese
European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese spoken in continental Portugal, as well as the Azores and Madeira islands...
. Both varieties have undergone significant and divergent developments in phonology and the grammar of their pronominal
Pronominal
Pronominal can be used either to describe something related to a pronoun or to mean a phrase that acts as a pronoun in the context of nominal. An example of the second case is, "I want that kind". The phrase "that kind" stands in for a noun phrase, or nominal, that can be deduced from context, and...
systems. Brazilian Portuguese is considerably more conservative in its phonology, but much less conservative in its grammar. The result is that communication between the two varieties of the language without previous exposure can be occasionally difficult, especially for a Brazilian attempting to understand a European. Because of the extensive and long-term influence of the Brazilian telenovelas, a Portuguese national has little problem in understanding the Brazilian accent and specific words.
Brazilian and European Portuguese currently have two distinct, albeit similar, spelling standards. A unified orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
for the two varieties (including a limited number of words with dual spelling) has been recently approved by the national legislatures of Brazil and Portugal and is now official; see Spelling reforms of Portuguese
Spelling reforms of Portuguese
This article is about the spelling reforms of the Portuguese language.-Historical background:Portuguese began to be used regularly in documents and poetry around the 12th century...
for additional details. Formal written standards remain grammatically close to each other, despite some minor syntactic differences.
African Portuguese
African Portuguese
Portuguese is spoken in five African states: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, and Mozambique. Like English and French, Portuguese has become a post-colonial language in Africa and one of the working languages of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community...
is based on the European dialect, but has undergone its own phonetic and grammatical developments, sometimes reminiscent of spoken Brazilian.
Galician
GalicianGalician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
is a special case. Originally the same language, it has lost almost all contact with Portuguese since the 14th century. Nowadays, a Galician standard has emerged which is still very close to European Portuguese. In pronunciation, however, each branch has gone very different ways, and as a result communication may be difficult at first. To a Galician speaker, Portuguese sounds like a kind of Galician with most vowels left out, whereas to a Portuguese speaker Galician may sometimes sound like Portuguese with a Spanish accent. The latter because most speakers of Galician in the cities have learned it as a second language after Spanish.
Others
- BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
has two literary norms (knizhovni normi): BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
and Banat BulgarianBanat Bulgarian dialectThe Banat Bulgarian language is the outermost dialect of the Bulgarian language with standardized writing and an old literary tradition. It is spoken by the Banat Bulgarians in the Banat region, in Romania and Serbia...
. - DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and AfrikaansAfrikaansAfrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, though related are considered separate languages. - KomiKomi languageThe Komi language is a Finno-Permic language spoken by the Komi peoples in the northeastern European part of Russia. Komi is one of the two members of the Permic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric branch...
, a Uralic language spoken in northeastern European Russia, has official standards for both its Komi-ZyrianKomi-Zyrian languageKomi-Zyrian language, or simply Komi, Zyrian or Zyryan, is one of the two regional varieties of the pluricentrical Komi language, the other regional variety being Komi-Permyak....
and Komi-PermyakKomi-Permyak languageKomi-Permyak language is one of two regional varieties of the pluricentrical Komi language, the other variety being Komi-Zyrian.Komi is a Uralic language closely related to Udmurt....
dialects. - Korean: North and South (to some extent — differences are growing; see North–South differences in the Korean language)
- MalayMalay languageMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
(in Malaysia) and IndonesianIndonesian languageIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
are used to be two variants of the same language (Malay). Both languages are nowadays generally considered separate languages due to the growing divergence between the two and some political reasons. Nevertheless, they still retain some degree of mutual intelligibility despite a number of differences in vocabulary and grammar (See: Differences between Malaysian and Indonesian). The Malay language itself has many local varieties and dialects, whereas the Indonesian language, acting as lingua franca of the nation, has received a great number of both international and local influences. - Modern HebrewModern HebrewModern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
is grammatically and lexically uniform, but Israelis from different cultural backgrounds have different ways of pronunciation, all of which are considered standard and correct by language authorities. Among the different ways of pronunciation are: AshkenaziAshkenazi JewsAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, SephardicSephardi JewsSephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
, MizrahiMizrahi JewsMizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
, and Temani (which is considered the closest to the original pronunciation of Hebrew in biblical times). Hebrew is therefore probably the only pluricentric language where differences in pronunciation do not depend on the speaker's place of birth but on their cultural background. - Norwegian consists of a multitude of spoken dialects, which are written with two different orthographies: BokmålBokmålBokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
"book language" and NynorskNynorskNynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
"New Norwegian". - Romance languages
- RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
in Romania and that in Moldova - Romansh, with five written standards (from southwest to northeast: Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader) as well as a "compromise" form.
- Spanish, which has both national and regional linguistic norms, though all varieties are mutually intelligible (outside of minor vocabulary differences) and the same orthographic rules are shared throughout; the related Ladino is considered a separate language.
- Romanian
- PersianPersian languagePersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
: Three standardised varieties with official status in IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
(officially named DariDari (Persian)Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...
) and TajikistanTajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
(officially named TajikTajik languageTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
). Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian equally utilize the Perso-Arabic script in writing. Tajik Persian as used in Tajikistan utilizes a modified form of the Cyrillic alphabet, although attempts at re-introducing Perso-Arabic script are being made. - The standard languages of several South Slavic languagesSouth Slavic languagesThe South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...
represent points along a dialect continuum. MacedonianMacedonian languageMacedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
is a separate mono-standard language in the middle point between BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
and Serbo-CroatianSerbo-CroatianSerbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
. The latter is a group of mutually intelligible languages with the biggest differences being orthographic: BosnianBosnian languageBosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, CroatianCroatian languageCroatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
and SerbianSerbian languageSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
standard forms that are sometimes considered either two or three separate languages. - UkrainianUkrainian languageUkrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and RusynRusyn languageRusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian...
are eithered considered to be two standards of the same language or two languages. - Swedish: Two varieties exist, though only one written standard remains (regulated by the Swedish AcademySwedish AcademyThe Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden.-History:The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. Modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste"...
of Sweden): Rikssvenska, the official language of Sweden, and Finlandssvenska which, alongside Finnish, is the other official language of Finland. There are differences in vocabulary and grammar, with the Finnish variety remaining a little more conservative. The most marked differences, however, are in pronunciation and intonation: whereas Swedish speakers usually pronounce /k/ before front vowelFront vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
s as ɕ, this sound is usually pronounced by a Swedo-Finn as t͡ʃ; in addition, the two tones which are characteristic of Swedish (and Norwegian) are absent from most Finnish dialects of Swedish which have an intonation reminiscent of Finnish and thus sound more monotonous when compared to Rikssvenska.
See also
- Binary distributionBinary distributionBinary distribution is when a country has 2 or more dominant cities .-Countries with binary distribution:*Brazil *China *India *Japan...
- DiasystemDiasystemIn the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is an analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties...
- Standard languageStandard languageA standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
- Dialect continuumDialect continuumA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
- Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - DachspracheAusbausprache - Abstandsprache - DachspracheThe Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss...
- World languageWorld languageA world language is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people as a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers , but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic relations...