Supraregional Varieties, Standards and Vernaculars

This chapter investigates the continuum which exists between vernacular speech and standard language and examines various issues which arise in this area. Key to the continuum of speech in any Western-style society is the notion of a supraregional variety which, on the one hand, embodies sufficient vernacular features to fulfil the identity function of language but, on the other hand, does not contain features which are stigmatised in a speech community. Supraregional varieties are dynamic entities and are thus subject to language variation and change. Such varieties are only occasionally explicitly codified. However, speakers in any speech community will be aware of stigmatised and non-stigmatised features (with regard to accepted usage in more formal situations) and can move along the continuum of relative vernacularity in given contexts.