Dead or Alive? The Status of the Standard Language

Abstract

This chapter discusses the value of written records as evidence of the historical linguistic circumstances. The focus is on the status of the standard language, that is, the language of prestige in the speech community. Specifically, two tendencies that have to do with the dichotomy ‘dead’/‘alive’ underlying many discussions about standard languages are considered. This dichotomy reflects the metalinguistic attitude of the speakers and corresponds with the subconscious tendency of many linguists to think of languages as existing entities, even when they reject the Schleicherian paradigm of language as an organism. The first tendency is to regard the standard language in the written texts as ‘alive’, which leads to an overestimation of its importance for a reconstruction of language change. The second tendency is to regard the standard language in the written record as ‘dead’, which leads to an underestimation of the role of the standard in the speech community.