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Literary language is theregister of alanguage used when writing in a formal,academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known asformal language. It may be thestandardized variety of a language. It can sometimes differ noticeably from the variousspokenlects, but the difference between literary and non-literary forms is greater in some languages than in others. If there is a strong divergence between a written form and the spokenvernacular, the language is said to exhibitdiglossia.
The understanding of the term differs from one linguistic tradition to another and is dependent on the terminological conventions adopted.[1][2]
For much of its history, there has been a distinction in the English language between an elevated literary language (written) and acolloquial orvernacular language (spoken, but sometimes also represented in writing).[3] After theNorman conquest of England, for instance, Latin and French displaced English as the official and literary languages,[4] and standardized literary English did not emerge until the end of theMiddle Ages.[5] At this time and into theRenaissance, the practice ofaureation (the introduction of terms fromclassical languages, often through poetry) was an important part of the reclamation of status for the English language, and many historically aureate terms are now part of generalcommon usage. Modern English no longer has quite the same distinction between literary and colloquial registers.[3]
English has been used as a literary language in countries that were formerly part of theBritish Empire, for instance inIndia up to the present day,[6]Malaysia in the early 20th century[7] andNigeria, where English remains the official language.
Written inEarly Modern English, theKing James Bible and works byWilliam Shakespeare from the 17th century are defined as prototype mediums of literary English and are taught inadvanced English classes.[8] Furthermore, many literary words that are used today are found in abundance in the works of Shakespeare and as well as in King James Bible, hence the literary importance of early modern English in contemporaryEnglish literature andEnglish studies.[9]
Modern Standard Arabic is the contemporary literary and standard register ofClassical Arabic used in writing across allArabic-speaking countries and any governing body with Arabic as an official language. Many western scholars distinguish two varieties: the Classical Arabic of theQur'an and early Islamic (7th to 9th centuries)literature; and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), thestandard language in use today. The modern standard language is closely based on the Classical language, and most Arabs consider the two varieties to be two registers of the same language. Literary Arabic or classical Arabic is the official language of all Arab countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages[clarification needed][citation needed].
The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon ofdiglossia—the use of two distinct varieties of the same language, usually in different social contexts. Educated Arabic speakers are usually able to communicate in MSA in formal situations. This diglossic situation facilitatescode-switching in which a speaker switches back and forth between the two varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. In instances in which highly educated Arabic-speakers of different nationalities engage in conversation but find their dialects mutually unintelligible (e.g. a Moroccan speaking with a Kuwaiti), they are able to code switch into MSA for the sake of communication.
TheAramaic language has been diglossic for much of its history, with many different literary standards serving as the "high" liturgical languages, includingSyriac language,Jewish Palestinian Aramaic,Jewish Babylonian Aramaic,Samaritan Aramaic language andMandaic language, while the vernacularNeo-Aramaic languages serve as the vernacular language spoken by the common people likeNortheastern Neo-Aramaic (Sureth,Bohtan Neo-Aramaic,Hértevin language,Koy Sanjaq Syriac language,Senaya language),Western Neo-Aramaic,Northeastern Neo-Aramaic,Central Neo-Aramaic (Mlahsô language,Turoyo language),Neo-Mandaic,Hulaulá language,Lishana Deni,Lishanid Noshan,Lishán Didán,Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic, andBarzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic.
TheArmenian language was a diglossic language for much of its history, withClassical Armenian serving as the "high" literary standard and liturgical language, and theWestern Armenian andEastern Armenian dialects serving as the vernacular language of the Armenian people. Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian were eventually standardized into their own literary forms.
StandardBengali has two forms:
Grammatically, the two forms are identical; differing forms, such as verb conjugations, are easily converted from one form to another. However, the vocabulary is quite different from one form to the other and must be learned separately. Among the works ofRabindranath Tagore are examples of both shadhubhasha (especially among his earlier works) and chôlitôbhasha (especially among his later works). Thenational anthem of India was originally written in the shadhubhasha form of Bengali.
Literary Chinese (文言文;wényánwén; 'written-speech writing') is the form of writtenChinese used from the end of theHan dynasty to the early 20th century. Literary Chinese continually diverged fromClassical Chinese, as the dialects of China became more disparate and as the classical written language became less representative of thespoken language. At the same time, Literary Chinese was based largely upon the Classical Chinese, and writers frequently borrowed from the classical language into their literary writings. Literary Chinese therefore shows a great deal of similarity to Classical Chinese, even though the similarity decreased over the centuries.[10]
Starting from early 20th century,written vernacular Chinese (simplified Chinese:白话文;traditional Chinese:白話文;pinyin:báihuàwén) became the literary standard. This is mostly aligned with astandardized form of Mandarin Chinese, which however means there exists considerable divergence between written vernacular Chinese and other Chinese variants likeCantonese,Shanghainese,Hokkien andSichuanese. Some of these variants have their own literary form, but none of them are currently used in official formal registers, although they may be used in legal transcription, and in certain media and entertainment settings.[11]
TheFinnish language has a literary variant, literary Finnish, and a spoken variant,spoken Finnish. Both are considered a form of non-dialectal standard language, and are used throughout the country. Literary Finnish is a consciously created fusion of dialects for use as a literary language, which is rarely spoken at all, being confined to writing and official speeches.
TheGeorgian language has a literary liturgical form, theOld Georgian language, while the vernacular spoken varieties are theGeorgian dialects and other relatedKartvelian languages likeSvan language,Mingrelian language, andLaz language.
German differentiates betweenHochdeutsch/Standarddeutsch (Standard German) andUmgangssprache (everyday/vernacular language). Amongst the differences are the regular use of thegenitive case and the simple past tensePräteritum in written language. In vernacular German, genitive phrases ("des Tages") are frequently replaced with a construction of "von" +dative object ("von dem Tag") — comparable to English "the dog's tail" vs. "the tail of the dog". Likewise, thePräteritum ("ich ging") can be substituted with theperfect ("ich bin gegangen") to a certain degree. The preterite and genitive cases are still used in daily language, if rarely. Their use in vernacular can depend on the regional dialect and education of the speaker. People of higher education use the genitive more regularly in their casual speech, and the use of perfect instead ofPräteritum is especially common in southern Germany, where thePräteritum is considered somewhat declamatory[clarification needed]. The GermanKonjunktiv I / II ("er habe" / "er hätte") is also used more often in written form, and is replaced by the conditional ("er würde geben") in spoken language, although in some southern German dialects theKonjunktiv II is used more often. Generally there is a continuum between more dialectical varieties and more standard varieties in German, while colloquial German nonetheless tends to increaseanalytic elements at the expense ofsynthetic elements.
From the early nineteenth century until the mid-20th century,Katharevousa, a form ofGreek, was used for literary purposes. In later years,Katharevousa was used only for official and formal purposes (such as politics, letters, official documents, and newscasting) whileDimotiki, 'demotic' or popular Greek, was the daily language. This created adiglossic situation until in 1976,Dimotiki was made the official language.
During therevival of the Hebrew language, spoken and literary Hebrew were revived separately, causing a dispersion between the two. The dispersion started to narrow sometime after the two movements merged, but substantial differences between the two still exist.
Early Modern Irish, also called Classical Gaelic or Classical Irish (Gaoidhealg) was a sharedliterary form of Gaelic that was in use by poets inScotland andIreland from the 13th century to the 18th century.
Before that time, the vernacular dialects of Ireland and Scotland were considered to belong to a single language, and in the late 12th century a highly formalized standard variant of that language was created for the use inIrish bardic poetry. The standard was created by medieval Gaelic poets based on the vernacular usage of the late 12th century and allowed a lot of dialectal forms that existed at that point in time,[12] but was keptconservative and was taught virtually unchanged throughout later centuries. The grammar and metrical rules were described in a series of grammatical tracts and linguistic poems used for teaching in bardic schools.[13][14]
Standard Italian evolved as a literary language, based principally on theTuscan dialect, in part due to the prestige enjoyed by Florentine authors likeDante,Petrarch,Boccaccio,Machiavelli, andFrancesco Guicciardini.Different languages were spoken throughout Italy, almost all of which wereRomance languages which had developed in every region, due to the political and cultural fragmentation of the peninsula.
Now, it is thestandard language of Italy, due to modern media and education, and many of Italy's other languages and dialects are dying out.
Until the late 1940s, the prominent literary language in Japan was theClassical Japanese language (文語,bungo), which is based on the language spoken inHeian period (Late Old Japanese) and is different from thecontemporary Japanese language in grammar and some vocabulary. It still has relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survivedWorld War II are still written inbungo, although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect, and fixed form poetries likeHaiku andTanka are still mainly written in this form.
In theMeiji period, some authors started to use the colloquial form of the language in their literature. Following the government policy after theWorld War II, the standard form of contemporary Japanese language is used for most literature published since the 1950s. The standard language is based on the colloquial language inTokyo area, and its literary stylistics in polite form differs little from its formal speech. Notable characteristics of literary language in contemporary Japanese would include more frequent use of Chinese origin words, less use of expressions againstprescriptive grammar (such as "ら抜き言葉"), and use of non-polite normal form ("-だ/-である") stylistics that are rarely used in colloquial language.
In theJavanese language,alphabet characters derived from the alphabets used to writeSanskrit, no longer in ordinary use, are used in literary words as a mark of respect.
Kannada exhibits a strongdiglossia, likeTamil, also characterised by three styles: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language, a modern literary and formal style, and a moderncolloquial form. These styles shade into each other, forming a diglossic continuum.
The formal style is generally used in formal writing and speech. It is, for example, the language of textbooks, of much ofKannada literature and of public speaking and debate. Novels, even popular ones, will use the literary style for all description and narration and use the colloquial form only for dialogue, if they use it at all. In recent times, however, the modern colloquial form has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of the modern literary style: for instance mostcinema,theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio.
There are also many dialects of Kannada, Which areDharwad Kannada ofNorth Karnataka,Arebhashe ofDakshina Kannada and Kodagu,Kundakannada of Kundapura,Havyaka Kannada are major dialects.
Classical Latin was the literary register used in writing from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, whileVulgar Latin was the common, spoken variety used across theRoman Empire. The Latin brought by Roman soldiers toGaul,Iberia, orDacia was not identical to the Latin ofCicero, and differed from it in vocabulary, syntax, and grammar.[15] Some literary works withlow-register language from the Classical Latin period give a glimpse into the world of early Vulgar Latin. The works ofPlautus andTerence, beingcomedies with many characters who wereslaves, preserve some earlybasilectal Latin features, as does the recorded speech of the freedmen in theCena Trimalchionis byPetronius Arbiter. At theThird Council of Tours in 813,priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language—either in therustica lingua romanica (Vulgar Latin), or in theGermanic vernaculars—since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin.
TheMalay language exists in a classical variety, two modern standard variety and several vernacular dialects.
Maltese has a variety of dialects (including theŻejtun dialect,Qormi dialect andGozitan amongst others) that co-exist alongside Standard Maltese. Literary Maltese, unlike Standard Maltese, features a preponderance ofSemitic vocabulary and grammatical patterns; however, this traditional separation between Semitic andRomance influences inMaltese literature (especially Maltese poetry[16] andCatholic liturgy on the island) is changing.
StandardManchu was based on the language spoken by theJianzhou Jurchens duringNurhaci's time, while other unwritten Manchu dialects, such as that ofAigun andSanjiazi, were spoken in addition to the relatedXibe language.
TheClassical Mongolian language was the high register used for religious and official purposes, while the various Mongolian dialects served as the low register, likeKhalkha Mongolian,Chakhar Mongolian,Khorchin Mongolian,Kharchin Mongolian,Baarin Mongolian,Ordos Mongolian and theBuryat language. TheTibetan Buddhist canon was translated into Classical Mongolian. TheOirat Mongols who spoke theOirat language and dialects likeKalmyk language orTorgut Oirat used a separate standard written with theClear script.
TheMongolian language, based on Khalkha Mongolian, now serves as the high register inMongolia itself while inInner Mongolia a standard Mongolian based on Chakhar Mongolian serves as the high register for all Mongols in China. The Buryat language, which is seen as part of the Mongolian language, has been turned into a standard literary form in Russia.
N'Ko is a literary language devised bySolomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for theMande languages ofWest Africa. It blends the principal elements of the partially mutually intelligible[17]Manding languages. The movement promoting N'Ko literacy was instrumental in shaping theManinka cultural identity in Guinea, and has also strengthened the Mande identity in other parts of West Africa.[18] N'Ko publications include a translation of theQur'an, a variety of textbooks on subjects such asphysics andgeography, poetic and philosophical works, descriptions of traditional medicine, a dictionary, and several local newspapers.
Persian or New Persian has been used continually as the literary language of major areas inWestern Asia, theCaucasus,Central Asia andSouth Asia. The language written today remains essentially the same as that used byFerdowsi despite variant colloquial dialects and forms. For many centuries, people belonging to the educated classes from theBosphorus to theBay of Bengal would be expected to know some Persian. It was once the language of culture (especially of poetry), from theBalkans to theDeccan, functioning as alingua franca.[19] Until the late 18th century, Persian was the dominant literary language ofGeorgia's elite.[20] Persian was the second major vehicle after Arabic in transmitting Islamic culture and has a particularly prominent place in Sufism.
Slavonic-Serbian (slavenosrpski) was the literary language ofSerbs in theHabsburg monarchy used from the mid-18th century to 1825. It was a linguistic blend ofChurch Slavonic of the Russian recension,vernacular Serbian (Štokavian dialect), andRussian. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was severely attacked byVuk Karadžić and his followers, whose reformatory efforts formed modern literary Serbian based on the popular language, known asSerbo-Croatian.
Tagalog was the basis of theFilipino language; both share the same vocabulary and grammatical system and are mutually intelligible. However, there is a significant political and social history that underlies the reasons for differentiating between Tagalog and Filipino.
Modern Tagalog is derived fromArchaic Tagalog, which was likely spoken during theClassical period, it was the language of theMai State,Tondo Dynasty (according to theLaguna Copperplate Inscription) and southernLuzon. It was written usingBaybayin, a syllabary which is a member of theBrahmic family, before the Spanish Romanised the alphabet beginning in the late 15th century. Tagalog was also the spoken language of the 1896Philippine Revolution.
The1987 Constitution maintains that Filipino is the country's national language and one of two official languages, alongside English. Today, Filipino is considered the proper term for the language of the Philippines, especially by Filipino-speakers who are not of Tagalog origin, with many referring to the Filipino language as "Tagalog-based". The language is taught in schools throughout the country and is the official language of education and business. Native Tagalog-speakers meanwhile comprise one of the largest linguistic and cultural groups of the Philippines, numbering an estimated 14 million.[21]
Notably, in Eastern European andSlavic linguistics, the term "literary language" has also been used as a synonym of "standard language".[22][23][24][25]
Tamil exhibits a strongdiglossia, characterised by three styles: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language, a modern literary and formal style and a moderncolloquial form. These styles shade into each other, forming a diglossic continuum.[26]
The modern literary style is generally used in formal writing and speech. It is, for example, the language of textbooks, of much ofTamil literature and of public speaking and debate. Novels, even popular ones, will use the literary style for all description and narration and use the colloquial form only for dialogue, if they use it at all. In recent times, however, the modern colloquial form has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of the modern literary style: for instance mostcinema,theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio.
Classical Tibetan was the high register used universally by all Tibetans while the various mutually unintelligibleTibetic languages serve as the low register vernacular, likeCentral Tibetan language inÜ-Tsang (Tibet proper),Khams Tibetan inKham,Amdo Tibetan inAmdo,Ladakhi language inLadakh andDzongkha inBhutan. Classical Tibetan was used for official and religious purposes, such as in Tibetan Buddhist religious texts like theTibetan Buddhist canon and taught and learned in monasteries and schools in Tibetan Buddhist regions.
Now,Standard Tibetan, based on the Lhasa dialect, serves as the high register in China. In Bhutan, the TibetanDzongkha language has been standardised and replaced Classical Tibetan for official purposes and education, inLadakh, the standard official language learned are now the unrelated languagesUrdu and English, and inBaltistan, the TibetanBalti language serves as the low register while the unrelated Urdu is the official language.
The TurkicChagatai language served as the high register literary standard for Central Asian Turkic peoples, while the vernacular low register languages were theUzbek language andEastern Turki (Modern Uyghur). TheSoviet Union abolished Chagatai as the literary standard and had theUzbek language standardized as a literary language for, and theTaranchi dialect of Ili was chosen as the literary standard for Modern Uyghur, while other dialects like the Kashgar and Turpan dialects continue to be spoken.
Like other languages, the modern spoken language tends to use simplified forms, for example using auxiliary verbs, as in English, to form tenses, in contrast to verb forms for each tense etc., similar to Latin.
Standard Yoruba is the literary form of theYoruba language ofWest Africa, the standard variety learnt at school and that spoken by newsreaders on the radio. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850s, whenSamuel A. Crowther, native Yoruba and the first African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria, published a Yoruba grammar and started his translation of the Bible. Though for a large part based on theỌyọ andIbadan dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects.[27] Additionally, it has some features peculiar to itself only, for example the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as foreign structures, such ascalques from English which originated in early translations of religious works. The first novel in the Yorùbá language wasOgboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (The Forest of A Thousand Demons), written in 1938 by ChiefDaniel O. Fagunwa (1903–1963). Other writers in the Yorùbá language include: SenatorAfolabi Olabimtan (1932–1992) andAkinwunmi Isola.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)But what was achieved in the second half of the twelfth century was something completely radical: the formal adoption of vernacular speech as the basis for a new literary standard. (...) If what they observed of the language at that time had been written down and identified according to regions, and if the manuscripts containing their observations had survived the vicissitudes of the intervening centuries, we would have to-day a fascinating and unique collection of descriptive linguistic material. However, what the poets did was to co-ordinate this material to produce a prescriptive grammar.
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