standard English

In SOCIOLINGUISTICS, a much debated term for the VARIETY of English used as a communicative norm throughout the English-speaking world. The notion has become increasingly difficult to handle because of the emergence of differing national standards of usage (in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and spelling) in areas where large numbers of people speak English as a first or second language: there are important regional differences between the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, India, West Africa and several other parts of the English-speaking world.