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A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse.^[1] Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works.^[1] Typically, varieties that become standardized are the local dialects spoken in the centers of commerce and government, where a need arises for a variety that will serve more than local needs.

A standard written language is sometimes termed by the German word Schriftsprache.

Characteristics[link]

The only requirement for a variety to be standard is that it can frequently be used in public places or public discourse.^[1] The creation of a prescriptive standard language derives from a desire for national (cultural, political, and social) cohesion with this considered as requiring an agreed-upon, standardized language variety.^{[citation needed]} Standard languages commonly feature:

• A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary)
• A recognized grammar
• A standard pronunciation (educated speech)
• A linguistic institution defining usage norms, e.g. Académie française, or Real Academia Española
• Constitutional (legal) status (frequently as an official language)
• Effective public use (court, legislature, schools)
• A literary canon
• Convenience speaking^[2]
• Popularity and acceptance in the community^[3]
• Population^[4]

List of standard languages and regulators[link]

Examples[link]

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Arabic comprises many varieties (many mutually unintelligible^{[citation needed]}), that are considered a single language, because the standard Arabic register, Modern Standard Arabic, is generally intelligible to all speakers. It is based upon modified Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, the contemporary refined vernacular of Muhammad’s time, the 7th century CE.

The Chinese language (漢語) comprises a wide varieties of spoken forms, which are known as fangyan (方言, “regional speech”). The major spoken variants are (i) Mandarin, (ii) Wu, (iii) Cantonese, and (iv) Min. These spoken variants are not mutually intelligible, so referring to them by the English term “dialect” is inaccurate, since this generally denotes mutual intelligibility. Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, and is the official language of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Republic of Singapore. It is called Putonghua (普通话, “common speech”) in the PRC, Guoyu (國語, “national language”) in Taiwan, and Huayu (华语, “Chinese language”) in Singapore.

The Chinese language also enjoys official status in Hong Kong (together with English) and in Macau (together with Portuguese). However, Standard Chinese is not widely spoken in these territories. The majority of the population speaks, and often writes, Cantonese.

In British English the standard, known as Standard English (SE), is historically based on the language of the medieval English court of Chancery.^[5] The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the establishment of this standard as the norm of "polite" society, that is to say of the upper classes.^[6] The spoken standard has come to be seen as a mark of good education and social prestige.^[7] Although often associated with the RP accent, SE can be spoken with any accent.^[8]

The dialects of American English vary throughout the US, but the General American accent is the unofficial standard language for being considered accentless; it is based on Midwestern English, distributed within an isogloss area encompassing the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and to some extent Nebraska.^{[citation needed]}

Language distribution: The standard languages of Norway by municipality.

The basic structure and words of standard Finnish (yleiskieli) are mostly based upon the dialects of Western Finland, because Mikael Agricola, who codified the written language in the sixteenth century, was from Turku, the regional centre of the time. Finnish was developed to integrate all of the nation’s dialects, and so yield a logical language for proper written communication. One aim was national unification, in accordance to the nationalistic principle; the second aim was linguistic regularity and consistency, even if contradicting general colloquial usage, e.g. in Standard Finnish, ruoka becomes ruoan, and the pronunciation is ruuan.

Parisian French is the standard in French literature.

Standard German was developed for several centuries, during which time writers tried to write in a way intelligible to the greatest number of readers and speakers, thus, until about 1800, Standard German was mostly a written language. In that time, northern Germany spoke Low German dialects much different from Standard German. Later, the Northern pronunciation of written German became considered as the universal standard; in Hanover, because of that adoption, the local dialect disappeared.

Two standardized registers of the Hindustani language have legal status India: Standard Hindi (one of 23 co-official national languages) and Urdu (Pakistan’s official tongue), resultantly, Hindustani often called “Hindi-Urdu”.

Standard Italian derives from the city speech of Florence and the regional speech of Tuscany: the Florentine influence upon early Italian literature (e.g. Divine Comedy) established that dialect as base for the standard language of Italy.

In Norwegian there are two parallel standard languages: (i) Bokmål (partly derived from the local pronunciation of Danish, when Denmark ruled Norway), (ii) Nynorsk (comparatively derived from Norwegian dialects).

Portuguese has two official written standards, (i) Brazilian Portuguese (used chiefly in Brazil) and (ii) European Portuguese (used in Portugal and Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe). The written standards slightly differ in spelling and vocabulary, and are legally regulated. Unlike the written language, however, there is no spoken-Portuguese official standard, but the European Portuguese reference pronunciation is the educated speech of Lisbon.

In Brazil, actors and journalists usually adopt an unofficial, but de facto, spoken standard Portuguese, originally derived from the middle-class dialect of Rio de Janeiro, but that now comprehends educated urban pronunciations from the different speech communities in the southeast. In that standard, <s> represents the phoneme /s/ when it appears at the end of a syllable (whereas in Rio de Janeiro this represents /ʃ/) the rhotic consonant spelled <r> is pronounced [x] in the same situation (whereas in São Paulo this is usually an alveolar flap or trill). European and African dialects have differing realizations of /ʁ/ than Brazilian dialects, with the former using [ʁ] and [r] and the latter using [x], [h], or [χ].^[9] Between vowels, <r> represents /ɾ/ for most dialects.

In Spain, Standard Spanish is based upon the speech of educated speakers from Castile and León. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. This is known as Rioplatense Spanish (“River Plate Spanish”), distinguishable, from other standard Spanishes, by the greater use of the voseo.

The Standard form of Modern Greek is based on the Southern dialects; these dialects are spoken mainly in the Peloponnese, the Ionian Islands, Attica, Crete and the Cyclades.^[10] However the Northerners call this dialect, and the Standard form, 'Atheneika' which means 'the Athens dialect'. This form is also official in Cyprus, where people speak a South-Eastern dialect (dialects spoken in the Dodecanese and Cyprus), Cypriot Greek.

See also[link]

• Official language
• National language
• Literary language
• Classical language
• Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache
• Dialect continuum
• Pluricentric language
• Orthography
• Koiné language
• Nonstandard dialect

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.

Biography[link]

The youngest of three children, Williams was born in Newburgh, New York. He attended Newburgh Free Academy for high school, where he would write his song "Black Stacey." After graduating from Morehouse College with a B.A. in acting and philosophy, Williams moved to New York City to earn an MFA in Acting from New York University's prestigious Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.^[1][2] There he found himself at the center of the New York cafe poetry scene.

Williams and artist Marcia Jones began their relationship in 1995 as collaborative artists on the Brooklyn performance art and spoken word circuit. Their daughter, Saturn, was born in 1996.^[3] His collection of poems S/HE is a series of reflections on the demise of the relationship.^[4] Marcia Jones,^[5] a visual artist and art professor, created the cover artwork for The Seventh Octave, images throughout S/HE in response to Williams, and set-designed his 2001 album Amethyst Rock Star. Saturn has recently been performing with her father on his 2008 concert tour.^{[6] [7]}

On his 36th birthday, February 29, 2008, Williams married his girlfriend of five years, actress Persia White. Williams met White in 2003 when he made a guest appearance on the TV show Girlfriends as a poet named Sivad. (1993).^[8][9] On January 17, 2009, White announced via her Myspace blog that she and Williams were no longer together.^[10]

Williams is a vegan.^[11]

Career[link]

By 1995, he had become an open mic poet and, in 1996, he won the title of Nuyorican Poets Cafe's Grand Slam Champion. The documentary film SlamNation follows Williams and the other members of the 1996 Nuyorican Poets Slam team (Beau Sia, Mums da Schemer and Jessica Care Moore) as they compete in the 1996 National Poetry Slam held in Portland, Oregon.

The following year, Williams landed the lead role in the 1998 feature film Slam. Williams featured as both a writer and actor^[12] on the film, which would win both the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D'Or (Golden Camera)^[13] and serve to introduce Williams to international audiences.

Williams was at this time breaking into music. He had performed with such artists as Nas, The Fugees, Christian Alvarez, Blackalicious, Erykah Badu, KRS-One, Zack De La Rocha, De La Soul, and DJ Krust, as well as poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez. After releasing a string of EPs, in 2001 he released the LP Amethyst Rock Star with producer Rick Rubin and in September 2004 his self-titled album to much acclaim. He played several shows supporting Nine Inch Nails on their European tour in summer 2005, and has also supported The Mars Volta.

Williams was also invited to the Lollapalooza music festival in Summer 2005. The Chicago stage allowed Williams to attract a wider audience. He also appeared on NIN's album Year Zero, and supported the group on their 2006 North American tour. On the tour Williams announced that Trent Reznor would co-produce his next album.^[14]

This collaboration resulted in 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!. This album was available only at the website until a physical CD of the album was issued. The physical release included new tracks and extended album artwork.^[15] The first 100,000 customers on the website had the option to download a free lower-quality audio version of the album. The other option was for users to pay $5 to support the artist directly and be given the choice of downloading the higher-quality MP3 version or the lossless FLAC version. The material has been produced by Trent Reznor and mixed by Alan Moulder. It was Reznor who said that, after his own recent dealings with record labels, they should release it independently and directly.^[16]

As a writer, Williams has been published in The New York Times, Esquire, Bomb Magazine and African Voices, as well as having released four collections of poetry. As a poet and musician, Williams has toured and lectured across the world, appearing at many universities and colleges. In his interview in the book, Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, Williams explained why he creates within so many genres, saying:

Williams is a vocal critic of the War on Terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan;^[18] among his better-known works are the anti-war anthems "Not In My Name" and "Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)". In early 2008, a Nike Sparq Training commercial featured Williams's song "List of Demands (Reparations)".

In a November 2008 interview with Wired.com, Williams talked about his forthcoming projects:

...but there's one [album] that I'm waist-deep into. I'm aiming to finish it up next month. Trent wants to work on a sequel for Niggy that I think would be cool and I also have an album and new songs demoed at home that I'm ready to go into the studio and lay down. It’s a complete reflection of how I feel in this country; it's a very transformative time.^[19]

In January 2009, he released NGH WHT – The Dead Emcee Scrolls with The Arditti Quartet, a reading of his 2006 poetry book of the same name. This collaboration with Thomas Kessler (who also set ,said the shotgun to the head to music) is released with two payment options: listeners may download Chapters 18-22 of the 27-minute composition for free (in mp3 format), or for $6, can download the entire 33-chapter composition in lossless .aif format, along with the isolated vocal and quartet multitrack stems. The entire paid download totals in size at 563 Megabyte.^[20]

He currently resides in Paris, France. He has contributed to two tracks on the 2011 album Baba Love by French musician Arthur H.^[21]

Williams latest album, Volcanic Sunlight' was released November 11, 2011. Williams showcased the album at London's Hoxton Bar Kitchen on January 26, 2011. Livemusic.fm interviewed Williams on the evening and made a subsequent film. Artist Alex Templeton-Ward produced the film. When Williams was asked what the point of poetry was he said: "I'm making this up, I have no idea but here we go, I think that it would be to express, to share, to relieve, to explore", "for me poetry offers some what of a cathartic experience. I am able to move through emotions and emotional experience particularly, you know, break-ups, difficulties in all the things that I may face, whether that is with an industry or a loved one or whomever, there needs to be an infiltration process, like you have a window open over there. That is the purpose of poetry – it is the window that opens that allows some air in, some other insight, some other possibility so we can explore all that we feel, all that we think but with the space to see more than what we know, because there is so much more than we know", "If I didn't open myself to the possibilities of the unknown then I would be lost."

Discography[link]

Albums/EPs[link]

• Penny for a Thought / Purple Pigeons (2000)
• Amethyst Rock Star (2001)
• Not in My Name (2003)
• Saul Williams (2004)
• The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! (2007)
• NGH WHT – The Dead Emcee Scrolls with The Arditti Quartet (2009)
• Volcanic Sunlight (2011)

Guest and compilation appearances[link]

• "Twice the First Time" on Eargasms – Crucialpoetics Vol. 1 (1997)
• "Elohim (1972)" on Black Whole Styles (1998)
• "Ohm" on Lyricist Lounge, Volume One (1999)
• "Coded Language" on Coded Language by DJ Krust (1999)
• "Release" with Lyrics Born and Zack De La Rocha on Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious (2002)
• "Time (Jungle) (Temple Of Soul Mix)" on Nublu Sessions, mixed by Wax Poetic (2003)
• "Sent from Sandy Shores" (with Sacajawea) on Dreams of Water Themes by Adventure Time (2003)
• "Wake up Show Freestyles" by Sway and King Tech (2004)
• "Three Fingers" on Enter the Chicken by Buckethead & Friends (2005)
• "Sea Lion (Extended)" (with Will Oldham) on "Sea Lion" by Sage Francis (2005)
• "Mr. Nichols" on Sound Mirrors by Coldcut (2006)
• "April Showers, April Tears" on ¿What by Stuart Davis (2006)
• ",said the shotgun to the head" on Thomas Kessler by Thomas Kessler (2006)
• "Survivalism" and "Me, I'm Not" on Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails (2007)
• "Gunshots By Computer" and "Survivalism" on Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D by Nine Inch Nails (2007)
• "Lyrical Gunplay" on Thru by Thavius Beck
• "Dance Of The Dead" on The Unbound Project, Vol. 1 a compilation benefit album for Mumia Abu-Jamal
• "List Of Demands" on Nike Sparq Commercial
• "Black Stacy Remix" ft. Nas
• "U Can Do It" (with Maeckes) on "KIDS" by Maeckes (2010)
• "Dance or Die" on The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010)

Bibliography[link]

• The Seventh Octave, 1998, Moore Black Press ISBN 0-9658308-1-0
• She, 1999, MTV/Pocketbooks ISBN 0-671-03977-6
• Said the Shotgun to the Head, 2003, MTV/Pocketbooks ISBN 0-7434-7079-6
• The Dead Emcee Scrolls, 2006, MTV/Pocketbooks ISBN 1-4165-1632-8
• Chorus, 2012, MTV Books ISBN 1-4516-4983-5 ^[22]

Filmography[link]

• Downtown 81 (voice) (1981/2000)
• Underground Voices (1996)
• Slam (1998)
• SlamNation (1998)
• I'll Make Me a World (1999)
• King Of The Korner (2000)
• K-PAX (2001)
• The N Word (2004)
• Lackawanna Blues (2005)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Saul Williams at Discogs
• Saul Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Saul Williams: Volcanic Sunlight

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Kashmala Tariq (Urdu: کشمالہ طارق ) (born January 24, 1972 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from the Women Reserve Constituency NA-277 for the province of Punjab. She belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) or PML-Q. She is also actively involved in women's rights.

Career[link]

Kashmala graduated from the London School of Economics in 1998 with a major in International Trade Laws (Banking and Finance). She was a member of Pakistan peoples party and elected into parliament in 2001. She is also involved in women's rights and much of her work in politics have centered around this issue. She introduced two bills regarding women in parliament, on honour killings and amendments to the Hudood Ordinance respectively. She is among the critics of the Hudood Ordinance and questions its legitimacy in Islamic theology as claimed by the proponents.^[1] She identifies laws on gender discrimination, sexual harassment scandal and domestic violence among her priority issues and criticizes the feudal mindset along with a male-dominated culture as hindering progress and laws in these areas.^[2][3] In March 2005, when Tariq's sponsored bill on Karo-kari (honour killing) was rejected by voice vote in the National Assembly, she criticized the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) calling its leaders ‘self-styled’ experts on Islam saying they were exploiting Islam and the constitution and that they used Quranic verses to suit their points of view.^[4] Tariq had suggested 3 amendments related to the issue of Wali (legal male guardian), compoundability and the remission of sentence but the opposition, i.e. MMA and Law Minister Wasi Zafar opposed the bill calling it "un-islamic".^[5] In August 2006 as a member of the NA Select Committee on Women’s Protection Bill, Tariq proposed that a husband, who had sex with his wife without her consent should be tried under rape charges.^[6] Due to outspoken manner against corruption and nepotism, her party sought to have her expelled from the party. She maintains that the driving forces behind her opponents are an anti-woman mindset and corruption in politics.^[7]

On September 24, 2007, she was elected to chair the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians from 2007 to 2010.^[8]

In July 2011, Tariq was a candidate for the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. She lost the first round of the election to Ms Fiamé Mata’afa, the Samoan Minister of Justice and Sir Alan Haselhurst, MP from the United Kingdom. Sir Alan was eventually elected as the chairperson in the runoff.^[9][10]

She is an Alumni of the London School of Economics List of London School of Economics people

See also[link]

• Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam)
• Peoples Students Federation

References[link]

External links[link]