When and how to use Standard English Maybe you have cousins or friends in other parts of the country, and there have been times when you have misunderstood each other? Perhaps you were trying to play a game that has different names in different parts of the country. Such local words, which are not Standard English, should not be used in formal situations such as in an exam or going for a job interview. In formal situations, it is required that you use Standard English, which also means not using slang words that you would use with your friends.

For some people, it is not difficult to use Standard English, because it happens to be their local dialect. But for others in different parts of the country, they may have to remind themselves to follow the rules, including the sentence order and grammar of Standard English, when they are speaking or writing in a formal context. However, Standard English can be spoken in any accent, and must not be confused with talking ‘posh’.

An important influence then came from the Normans who invaded England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The Normans settled here permanently, bringing with them the French language and Latin. Old English was still spoken by most of the ordinary people, while French and Latin became the languages of the ruling classes, and was used for legal and religious duties.

Standard English today Although language changes all the time – think of new words like Internet, Web site, and so on – we still use Standard English as the formal form of our language. Standard English is the form that is taught in schools, following set rules of grammar and spelling. Newspapers are written in Standard English and it is used by newsreaders on national television, who need to be understood by people with different local dialects, all over the country.

This standardization spread across Britain, replacing all other dialect forms, that is, the other local styles of English spoken around the country. Latin and French were no longer used in law or academic work, which culminated in the 18th century, when dictionaries and grammar books were first written. Dr Johnson wrote an influential dictionary in 1755, which fixed many of the spellings we still use today.

Middle English developed at a crucial time in history, forcing the English language into some stability. One of the main reasons for this was that language started to be written down, and in 1458, the German Johannes Gutenberg invented printing, a process that William Caxton introduced to England in 1475. With all the differences and varieties in the language, Caxton had to make some choices about printing, which served to stabilize and standardize English to a certain extent. Because of where Caxton lived, he chose the east Midlands dialect, the language form used in London and around the southeast. The fixed spellings of what came to be known as Standard English, had been born, and were now, literally, set down in black and white.

The next 300 years acted like a big melting pot, in which all these languages and different influences were mixed, until the language that gradually emerged was Middle English.

Standard English The history of English is quite a story in itself, with dramatic changes and great variety. Up to about 450, British (Celtic) tribes spoke languages related to modern Welsh, Scots Gaelic, and Irish (Erse). However, the years between 450 and 1066 brought about great change. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded from North Germany in around 450, and settled on the eastern side of what is now called England. Their language, Anglo-Saxon, spread across to the west of England and developed into what we now call Old English. Many of the words we use today still relate back to Old English – but this was soon to change too. Other invasions, this time in the form of the Vikings from Scandinavia, influenced the language with new words from the Viking's language Old Norse that entered Old English between 800 and 900.

Do you speak more than one language? Perhaps you are taught French or German at school, or English is your second language, and you speak a different tongue at home. But have you ever thought that you also speak different forms of language? For example, you probably speak to your friends in a way that you would never speak to, say, an interviewer in an interview. Hopefully, you would write differently in an exam than you would in a text message or e-mail! When we communicate with different people and in different situations, we naturally follow different sets of rules and patterns, often without having to think about the switches and transitions we are making. The most used form of English is Standard English.