Most of the discussion in this book has been concerned with non-standard varieties of Spanish, since it is there that most cases of variation and change are to be observed. However, account must also be taken of the standard varieties, which are perhaps best regarded as highly unusual forms of language, in the sense that they are rare (all humans use language, but only a minority use a standard language) and recent (they arose only in the last few thousand years of the multi-millennial history of human language). The reason why the process of standardization has an important place in any treatment of linguistic variation and change, in Spanish and other languages, is that an essential aspect of this process is reduction in variation within certain high-prestige varieties (see 7.2). However, paradoxically, we should not ignore the fact that for speakers of low-prestige varieties, the establishment of a standard may imply an increase in the range of variation available, since variants from the standard may enter the speech of non-elite groups and be added to the competition among pre-existing variants (see 7.3).

Although we have seen (1.1–2) that variation is inherent in language, the process of standardization may, in principle, reduce variation to zero in the variety which is subject to it. This elimination of variants, naturally, applies to instances of variation which are due to the normal effect of changes which are working their way through society (3.4), as well as to instances of variation which are more stable and long-established.