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A prestige dialect is the dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a speech community which is large enough to sustain more than one dialect. The study of prestige in language use is an important part of sociolinguistics.
Social prestige and the role of language The most prestigious people are those with the greatest influence on the community. This influence may derive from economic, political, or social power. Prestige is not always overt; covert prestige may be significant too. There may be a tendency to align one's own use of language (idiolect) to that of a favoured dialect (positive prestige), or to move away from a dialect of low esteem (negative prestige). Studies, particularly by Labov, have shown that positive prestige is more often overt, whilst negative prestige is more often covert (avoidance of the unmentionable). Sociologically, women of the lower middle-class are more likely to notice and adopt overt positive prestige. Among working-class men, there may sometimes be a covert preference for negative prestige. In nations with a colonial history the prestige dialect is often close to the prestige dialect of the colonising community although it may fossilise at the point of secession. Where creolisation has taken place, the superstrate language operates as an extreme prestige dialect, which may effect great influence, including, in extreme case, the decreolisation of the creole language into the prestige language. When a prestige dialect is prescribed as the norm by dominant institutions it is also a standard dialect. Broadcast media have been particularly effective at defining standard dialects. Particular prestige dialects The United States is said to have no single prestige dialect . In practice, many regional and ethnic dialects, such as African American Vernacular English and Appalachian English, are of lower prestige than the dialect prevalent in television newscasts, federal politics and meetings within nationwide commercial enterprises (referred to as General American). Dialect and language It is not uncommon for speakers of a particular dialect, especially a regional dialect which has historically not been regarded as a prestige dialect, to claim that their dialect is in fact a distinct language. This enables them to distance it from the dominant dialect, and to establish prestige and pride in their own variety of the language. Such moves have been made for Scots as distinct from English. Similar issues have affected perceptions of the language (or languages) commonly called Serbo-Croatian during the 20th century. See Dialect | ||||||||
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