ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some basic distinctions between spoken and written language. Standard English is a geographical and social class dialect: a form of English used by a particular socio-economic group. Confusion between written and spoken language is widespread. The prevailing ideology within linguistics for the whole of the twentieth century has been that the spoken language is primary, that the written language is at best a pale reflection of the spoken, and that spoken language alone is the legitimate object of study of linguistics. The prevalence of spelling pronunciations depends, of course, on a population who are highly literate, and therefore on social and educational factors. The claim that spoken language is primary and written language is merely a secondary representation of it is, in a way, a strange one for linguists to have insisted on so strongly. A word of caution is also in order, however, for it is easy to over-generalize the effect of literacy on pronunciation.
