Everything about Literary Language totally explained
A
literary language is a
register of a
language that's used in
literary writing. This may also include
liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary (
vernacular) forms is more marked in some languages than in others. Where there's a strong divergence, the language is said to exhibit
diglossia.
Classical Latin was the literary register of Latin, as opposed to the
Vulgar Latin spoken across the
Roman Empire. The Latin brought by Roman soldiers to
Gaul,
Iberia or
Dacia wasn't identical to the Latin of
Cicero, and differed from it in vocabulary, syntax, and grammar. Some literary works with
low-register language from the Classical Latin period give a glimpse into the world of early Vulgar Latin. The works of
Plautus and
Terence, being
comedies with many characters who were
slaves, preserve some early
basilectal Latin features, as does the recorded speech of the freedmen in the
Cena Trimalchionis by
Petronius Arbiter. At the third
Council of Tours in 813,
priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language — either in the
rustica lingua romanica (Vulgar Latin), or in the
Germanic vernaculars — since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin.
Literary English
» For literary uses of English see: Literary techniques
For formal English see: Standard English » For written English see: Standard Written English
For much of its history there has been a distinction in the English language between an elevated literary language and a colloquial language. After the
Norman conquest of England, for instance, Latin and French displaced English as the official and literary languages and Standard literary English didn't emerge until the end of the
Middle Ages. Modern English no longer has a distinction between literary and colloquial languages.
Malaysia in the early twentieth century, and
Nigeria, where English remains the official language.
Other languages
» See also: Standard language
Arabic
» See main article: Standard Arabic
Standard Arabic is the literary and standard register of
Classical Arabic used in writing. It is part of the
Arabic macrolanguage. Many western scholars distinguish two varieties: the Classical Arabic of the
Qur'an and early Islamic (7th to 9th centuries)
literature; and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the
standard 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 one and 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.
The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of
diglossia—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 facilitates
code-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 (for example a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), they're able to code switch into MSA for the sake of communication.
Chinese
» See main article: Classical Chinese
Literary Chinese,
Wényánwén (文言文）, "Literary Writing", is the form of written Chinese used from the end of the
Han Dynasty to the early 20th century when it was replaced by vernacular written Chinese, or
Baihua (白話）. Literary Chinese diverged more and more from
Classical Chinese as the dialects of China became more and more disparate and as the Classical written language became less and less representative of the
spoken language. At the same time, Literary Chinese was based largely upon the Classical language, and writers frequently borrowed 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.
Finnish
The
Finnish language has a standard 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.
German
» See main article: Standard German
German language differentiates between
Hochdeutsch/
Standarddeutsch (Standard German) and
Umgangssprache (colloquial language). Amongst the differences is the regular use of the genitive case or the simple past tense
Präteritum in written language. In colloquial language you replace genitive phrases ("des Tages") with a construction of "von" + dative object ("von dem Tag") - comparable to English "the dog's tail" vs. "the tail of the dog" - and the
Präteritum ("ich ging") with the perfect tense ("ich bin gegangen") to a certain degree. Nevertheless the use of neither the
Präteritum nor especially the genitive case is totally unusual in colloquial language, it's just quite rare, yet also depending on a region's dialect and/or the grade of education of the speaker. People of higher education use genitive more regularly in colloquial language and the use of perfect tense instead of
Präteritum is especially common in southern Germany, where the
Präteritum is considered somewhat declamatory. The German
Konjunktiv I / II ("er gebe" / "er gäbe") is also used more regularly in written form being replaced by the conditional ("er würde geben") in colloquial language, although in some southern German dialects the
Konjunktiv II is used more often. Generally there's a continuum between more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties in German language, while colloquial German nonetheless tends to increase
analytic elements at the expense of
synthetic elements.
Greek
» See main article: Katharevousa
From the early nineteenth century until the mid twentieth century
Katharevousa, a form of
Greek, 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) while
Dhimotiki, ‘demotic’ or popular Greek, was the daily language. This created a
diglossic situation until in
1976 Dhimotiki was made the official language.
Italian
When Italy was
unified, in 1861,
Italian existed mainly as a literary language. Different languages were spoken throughout the Italian peninsula, many of which were
Romance languages which had developed in every region, due to the political fragmentation of Italy. Now it's the
standard language of Italy.
Japanese
Until the late 1940s, the prominent literary language in Japan was
Classical Japanese language (文語 "Bungo"), which is based on the language spoken in
Heian Period (
Late Old Japanese) and is different from
contemporary Japanese language in grammar and some vocabulary. It still has relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived
World War II are still written in
bungo, 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 like
Haiku and
Tanka are still mainly written in this form.
In
Meiji period, some authors started to use the colloquial form of the language in their literature. Following the government policy after the
World War II, the standard form of contemporary Japanese language is used for most literature published since 1950s. The standard language is based on the colloquial language in
Tokyo 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 against
prescriptive 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.
Javanese
In the
Javanese language alphabet characters derived from the alphabets used to write
Sanskrit, no longer in ordinary use, are used in literary words as a mark of respect.
N'Ko
N'Ko is a literary language devised by
Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the
Mande languages of
West Africa. It blends the principal elements of the mutually unintelligible
Manding languages. The movement promoting N'Ko literacy was instrumental in shaping the
Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and has also strengthened the Mande identity in other parts of West Africa. N'Ko publications include a translation of the
Qur'an, a variety of textbooks on subjects such as
physics and
geography, poetic and philosophical works, descriptions of traditional medicine, a dictionary, and several local newspapers.
Tamil
Tamil exhibits a strong
diglossia, characterised by three styles: a classical literary style modelled on the ancient language, a modern literary and formal style, and a modern
colloquial form. These styles shade into each other, forming a diglossic continuum.
The modern literary style is generally used in formal writing and speech. It is, for example, the language of textbooks, of much of
Tamil 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 most
cinema,
theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio.
Yorùbá
Standard Yoruba is the literary form of the
Yoruba language of
West Africa, the standard variety learnt at school and that spoken by newsreaders on the radio. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850s, when
Samuel A. Crowther, native Yoruba and the first African Bishop, published a Yoruba grammar and started his translation of the Bible. Though for a large part based on the Ọyọ and Ibadan dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects. Additionally, it has some features peculiar to itself only, for example the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as foreign structures, such as
calques from English which originated in early translations of religious works. The first novel in the Yorùbá language was
Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (
The Forest of A Thousand Demons), written in 1938 by Chief
Daniel O. Fagunwa (1903-1963). Other writers in the Yorùbá language include: Senator
Afolabi Olabimtan (1932-1992) and
Akinwunmi Isola.
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