Prestige dialect

A prestige dialect is the dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a speech community which is large enough to sustain more than one dialect. The study of prestige in language use is an important part of sociolinguistics.
Social prestige and the role of language
The most prestigious people are those with the greatest influence on the community. This influence may derive from economic, political, or social power. Prestige is not always overt; covert prestige may be significant too. There may be a tendency to align one's own use of language (idiolect) to that of a favoured dialect (positive prestige), or to move away from a dialect of low esteem (negative prestige).
Positive prestige is more often overt, whilst negative prestige is more often covert (avoidance of the unmentionable). Sociologically, women of the lower middle-class are more likely to notice and adopt overt positive prestige. Among working-class men, there may sometimes be a covert preference for negative prestige.
When a prestige dialect is prescribed as the norm by dominant institutions it is also a standard dialect. Broadcast media have been particularly effective at defining standard dialects.
Prestige dialects differ from state to state, usually the dialect of the capital.
· English In the United Kingdom and in many parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, Standard English is the prestige dialect. (This should not be confused with BBC English, or Received Pronunciation, as these terms refer to accent, not dialect, though this also plays an important role in social prestige.) The United States is said to have no single prestige dialect
· Chinese In mainland China and Taiwan, Standard Mandarin, which is Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, is usually regarded as the prestige dialect. However, other varieties of Chinese may be locally prestigious in Hong Kong and Macau where the official variety of Chinese is Cantonese language.
Russian - the standard language is based on (but not identical to) the Moscow dialect, which is also the prestigious and universally understood and accepted dialect in Russia.
Thai Standard language is based on Bangkok dialect.
Turkish Standard language is based on Istanbul dialect.
Punjabi The Majhi dialect is Punjabi's prestige dialect Hindi. Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, is the prestige dialect of the Hindi-speaking states of India.
Dialect and language
It is not uncommon for speakers of a particular dialect, especially a regional dialect which has historically not been regarded as a prestige dialect, to claim that their dialect is in fact a distinct language. This enables them to distance it from the dominant dialect, and to establish prestige and pride in their own variety of the language. Such moves have been made for Scots as distinct from English. Similar issues have affected perceptions of the language
BIBLIOGRAPHY
References
· . Wilson, Kenneth G (1993). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press.
· Labov, W. (1982). "Objectivity and commitment in linguistic science; the case of the Black English trial in Ann Arbor". Language in Society '11': 165–201.
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Categories: Language varieties and styles Sociolinguistics
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