1st proofs Quantifying the standardization process SpanishinContext 1:1 (2003), 67–92. issn 853 / e-issn 845© John Benjamins Publishing Company in a non-standard local community The case of Murcia * J. M. Jiménez-Cano and J. M. Hernández-Campoy The aim of this paper is to report the results of a study of Murcian speech in order to measure the increasing diffusion of standard Castilian features from northern Peninsular Spanish over Murcian Spanish, a traditionally non- standard region. Following the methodology used in similar studies and a real-time approach, we measured the level of standardization of people interviewed in radio broadcasts in the last 26 years. A detailed analysis corre- lating linguistic variables with social variables and time intervals allowed us to compare the sociolinguistic behavior of the different social groups in terms of standardization (adoption of Castilian Spanish features) or non- standardization (maintenance of local Murcian features) and their tenden- cies in diachronic terms. Keywords: radio archives, real-time approach, standardization, Castilian Spanish, Murcian Spanish. 1. Introduction: Murcian Spanish and the standardization process In the Iberian Peninsula, since Renaissance times, nation-building and the creation of a national identity have been consciously planned state-level projects in which language has deliberately played a prominent role. As Old Castile became established as the dominant power, Castilian Spanish was used increasingly in situations of prestige and influence (the Court, the Church and the Army), in legal documents, in the administration of the incipient Spanish state and its empire, and in the prolific literary and artistic output of the Spanish Golden Age: Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderón, Quevedo, Garcilaso, etc. But it