De-hegemonizing Language Standards

This study establishes the discriminatory and elitist nature of standard languages and standardization itself, considering as counter-example the case of Sri Lankan English as symptomatic of the other or post-colonial Englishes. On the basis of this understanding of the standard, while at the same time accepting the necessity of standards, however attenuated, the writer argues for the active broadening of the standard to include the greatest variety possible - privileging meaning over other rules - and holds that this would in fact work towards extending the bounds of linguistic tolerance.