List of prestige dialects

A prestige dialect is the dialect that is considered most prestigious by the members of that speech community. In nearly all cases, the prestige dialect is also the dialect spoken by the most prestigious members of that community, often the people who have political, economic, or social power.

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Contents:

Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Arabic – In the Arab League countries, Modern Standard Arabic is considered the H-language, or high-prestige language. In contrast to most prestige dialects, it is not used in day-to-day conversation, but rather as a language of the political/social media programs and as a written language, however, if someone spoke it in streets & regular conversations, people will laugh about it.^[1] Educated speakers often consider speaking Modern Standard Arabic isn't prestigious & rather a Western language as English & French is prestigious. Prestige dialects differ from state to state, but they are usually the dialect of the capital of each state; example: Egyptian Arabic based on the Cairene accent is the most prestigious accent in Egypt.

• Armenian – Prior to the twentieth century, the prestige dialect of Western Armenian was spoken in Constantinople, and the prestige dialect of Eastern Armenian was spoken in Tiflis. Currently, the Yerevan dialect of Eastern Armenian is considered the only prestige dialect of Armenian.

B

• Bengali – Calcatian, the variety of Bengali spoken in Calcutta proper, is the prestige dialect of Bengali.

• Bulgarian – Although the standard language is based almost entirely on the eastern dialects, these dialects are universally considered unprestigious. The dialect of the capital Sofia, which is a mixture of the local Shopski dialects and the standard language, is the prestige dialect. It has various deviations from the literary language (more than the eastern dialects)—phonological, lexical and especially grammatical—but it is erroneously perceived by people from all over Bulgaria as closer to the standard language than most other dialects, including the eastern. This paradox is due to the leading position of Sofia in modern Bulgaria, the mass media (particularly television, where most speakers use the dialect of the capital), the fact that the western dialects have almost no vowel reduction in contrast with the eastern and are thus more clearly enunciated, and the fact that grammatical errors are more difficult to detect than phonological errors.

C

• Chinese, Mandarin – In the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and Singapore, Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and is the official language of those three states

• Chinese, Wu - In the Wu speaking area, which encompasses Shanghai, Southern Jiangsu, most Zhejiang, and parts of Anhui and Jiangxi, prior to the 20th century, the prestige dialect has traditionally been that of Suzhou, although Shanghainese is now considered the prestige dialect due to its large population and economic dominance.

• Chinese, Yue - Cantonese based on the Yuehai dialect of Canton is the prestige dialect and social standard of Yue, in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau.

D

• Dutch – Contrary to popular belief, the Amsterdam accent is not the prestige dialect of the Netherlands and neither is the Antwerpian accent in Flanders. Instead, both have a reputation for being perceived as uneducated and rude. The Gooi-accent, roughly the Dutch equivalent of British English received pronunciation; though occurring among the upper class, is considered to be pompous, and, like the Antwerp and Amsterdam accents, all but prestigious. Dutch in fact lacks a prestige dialect all together, and Standard Dutch is considered most prestigious when no clear traces of the speakers' dialect can be recognized.^[2]

E

• 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.^[3] In the early part of the twentieth century, though, Locust Valley Lockjaw and Mid-Atlantic English were among prestige accents, especially in film. Speech recognition work in computer science has shown a fairly large number of regional dialects and accents, with the Mid-Ohio regional "accent" being considered the most unaccented. Dialects such as Southern American English have subtypes (for example, West Texas differs from South Texas, and both certainly are different than Kentucky or North Carolinian southern accents). Mass media such as television has largely homogenized accents, and to some extent dialects, amongst younger newsreaders (CNN, located in Atlanta, does not have very many Georgian accents. However, mass media has also made moving between dialects and accents acceptable (for example, moving between Ebonics and American Standard English, especially amongst African-American broadcasters (and those who are on the same shows, Black or not). While Ebonics is often considered the antithesis of a prestige language, its use by comics for dramatic effect and highly-educated African-Americans for emphasis has made it acceptable as a method of expressing certain feelings even amongst non-African American speakers. This can be seen as well with Spanish, or its vernacular "Spanglish" (an admixture of Tex-Mex and Chicano/Norteno Spanish with Southern American English.

F

• French – Educated Parisian French has generally been taken as the prestige dialect of Metropolitan France, though the position is less clear among speakers of other national dialects such as Quebec French. In the United States, Colonial French (Also known as Plantation Society French) is considered the prestige dialect of Louisiana French.^[4] Though it is considered to be virtually extinct due to it becoming gradually assimilated with standard Cajun French.

G

• Greek – The conceived Modern Greek form of Katharevousa was once considered the prestige dialect. Today, the standard Greek dialect with Athenian pronunciation is considered the prestige dialect. See also Greek language question.

• German - The northern German dialects in general and specifically the variety of German spoken in the area of Hannover are generally considered to be the more "pure" forms of the language but the real prestige dialect is Standard German. The dialects of eastern Germany especially Upper Saxon German are considered not to be prestigious.

H

• Hebrew – In Israel, Hebrew was revived as a spoken language in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Israeli Hebrew is now regarded as the prestige dialect for the language, combining the traditional Ashkenazi (Eastern European) and Sephardi (largely Spanish/Portuguese) dialects, along with significant influence from various other Jewish dialects and languages such as Yiddish, Temani, and Ladino.

• Hindi – Among the Hindi-speaking states of India, Khariboli is the prestige dialect of Hindi.

I

• Italian – Although the dialects of inner Tuscany (namely, from Florence and Siena) are usually regarded as the purest forms of Italian, the Italian leading class speaks a Standard language elaborated by books, newspapers, school, cinema and television, which has been described as lingua toscana in bocca ambrosiana (Tuscan as spoken by the Milanese). Usually Italian leaders are not ashamed of showing their geographical origins through their pronunciation and the use of some dialectal expression.

• Indonesian – In Indonesia, the standard language is based on the standardized form of the Riau dialect of Malay. It is taught in schools and used in media, but rarely used in daily speech.

J

K

• Korean – In South Korea, South Korea's standard accent (Pyojuneo) is based on the Seoul dialect. However, there are a few (slight) differences among an accent that news readers speak with, one spoken by ordinary mid-aged people in Seoul, another spoken by younger generations in Seoul/Gyeonggi regions, since many local people migrated to Seoul throughout the 1960s to the 1980s. Other regional dialects in South Korea are sometimes humorously quoted in media or novels. In North Korea, the standard accent is based on the Pyongyang dialect, which is also called Munhwaeo.

• Kannada - Mainly spoken in Karnataka, the standard accent is based on the Kannada spoken in Mysore. Bangalore which is the capital and largest city in the state also by and large speaks in the same dialect.

L

M

• Macedonian - the standard Macedonian is based on Prilep-Bitola dialect, or the Central Macedonian dialectal group. However, generally considered as prestigious dialect is Skopje-Veles dialect, primarily because Skopje is the capital of the country and it is major cultural, economic, political and media centre. Even though modern Skopje dialect is very closely related to the Standard Macedonian, it retains some features that are unique for that region.

N

• Norwegian - There is no officially sanctioned standard of spoken Norwegian, and there is little to no prejudice against regional dialects. However, the sociolect spoken by the upper and middle class in East Norway, and particularly that of the West End of Oslo, is a de facto Standard Norwegian.

O

P

• Persian - Persian spoken in Tehran is generally considered the prestige dialect of Iran, and other Persian-speaking countries. Tehran Persian is also the dialect of news broadcasts.

• Portuguese – In Brazil, the variants from the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro may be considered "prestige dialects" , especially for their being used in national news broadcasts; however, those variants used for television usually substitute the dental t and d of the southern variant for the more widespread palatalised allophone and the post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ (written s) used in Rio de Janeiro for the more usual alveolar fricative /s/, both substitutions characteristic of the variant from cities such as Juiz de Fora, Volta Redonda and Vitória.

Q

R

• Russian – In Russia, the dialect spoken in and around Moscow is considered most prestigious. All nationwide newscasts are made in the Moscow dialect.

S

• Spanish – In the Spanish-speaking world, there is no single prestige dialect: instead, the variety used in the capital city is usually the prestige dialect of each country. For example, Peruvian Coast Spanish is the prestige dialect of Peru, and Rioplatense Spanish is the prestige dialect in Argentina and Uruguay. In Spain, the prestige dialect is that of Castile and Northern Spain, which is the one spoken in the Spanish media. Curiously, the local dialect from Madrid area has never been regarded as the prestige dialect, and instead the prestige dialect has been traditionally that of northern Castile (namely, from Valladolid, Palencia and Burgos), which is widely regarded as the purest forms of Spanish.

• Sinhalese- The majority in Sri Lanka speak Sinhala (Sinhalese) which is accepted as an H-form of languages in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese has many dialects, regional and social.

T

• Tamil – In Tamilnadu, the standard language is based on the dialect spoken in Madurai.

• Telugu – In Andhra Pradesh, the standard language is based on the dialects spoken in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur Districts.^[5]

• Thai – In Thailand, the standard language is based on the dialect spoken in Bangkok.

• Tibetan - Standard Tibetan, based on the speech of Lhasa, is the standard for that language

• Turkish – In Turkey, the standard language is based on the dialect spoken in Istanbul.

U

• Ukrainian – In Ukraine, quite a few dialects of Ukrainian are in common daily use and are considered to be equally prestigious, with a local dialect being favored in certain areas. Surzhyk, on the other hand, is universally perceived to not be prestigious.
• Urdu - The prestige dialect of Urdu is spoken in Lucknow, India.^[6][7][8]

V

W

X

Y

Z

See also

• Prestige (sociolinguistics)
• Dialect

Notes