Nativity and Language

Abstract

The central issue taken up by this paper is the close relation between the concepts of 'Nativity' and 'Language Variety' (dialect). It is speculated, here, that 'Nativity', i.e. the internalized linguistic knowledge, is a property of a dialect, rather than the standard form of a language. This assumption leads to the investigation of universal dialectal properties such as accent, idiolect, style, register, etc. within the intricate relation existing between language and society. The end result of this paper supports the speculation that the broad term 'language' subsumes different native dialects, unified by a written and spoken standard form. The fact that the official standard spoken form reflects dialect variations is an evidence in support of the claim that nativity belongs to dialects.