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.
A
- Arabic – In Arabic-speaking 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 media and as a written language. Prestige dialects differ from state to state, but they are usually the dialect of the capital of each state.
- 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 – 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 Standard Cantonese.
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 occuring 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.[1]
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.[2] In the early part of the twentieth century, though, Locust Valley Lockjaw and Mid-Atlantic English were among prestige accents, especially in film.
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.
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.
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.
I
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.
L
M
N
O
P
- Portuguese – In Brazil, the variants from the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro may be considered "prestige dialects" [citation needed], especially for their being used in national news broadcasts; however, those variants used for television usually substitute the dental t and d of the São Paulo 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. Also, in Rio Grande do Sul the metropolitan regional accent is considered a prestige accent, and it is considered as such in most of Brazil, as it is the most correct form of speech when used correctly.
Q
R
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, which is now being lost, has never been regarded as a prestige dialect, and has been gradually replaced by a combinations of the dialects of northern Castile (namely, from Valladolid, Palencia and Burgos), which are widely regarded as the purest forms of spanish.
T
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.