A report on Standard language and Abstand and ausbau languages
In sociolinguistics, an abstand language is a language variety or cluster of varieties with significant linguistic distance from all others, while an ausbau language is a standard variety, possibly with related dependent varieties.
- Abstand and ausbau languagesEffects of such codifications include slowing the pace of diachronic change in the standardized variety and affording a basis for further linguistic development (Ausbau).
- Standard language6 related topics with Alpha
Dialect continuum
2 linksSeries of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be.
Series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be.
A variety within a dialect continuum may be developed and codified as a standard language, and then serve as an authority for part of the continuum, e.g. within a particular political unit or geographical area.
Standard varieties may be developed and codified at one or more locations in a continuum until they have independent cultural status (autonomy), a process the German linguist Heinz Kloss called ausbau.
Mutual intelligibility
2 linksRelationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort.
Relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort.
In contrast, there is often significant intelligibility between different Scandinavian languages, but as each of them has its own standard form, they are classified as separate languages.
To deal with the conflict in cases such as Arabic, Chinese and German, the term Dachsprache (a sociolinguistic "umbrella language") is sometimes seen: Chinese and German are languages in the sociolinguistic sense even though some speakers cannot understand each other without recourse to a standard or prestige form.
Pluricentric language
1 linksA pluricentric language or polycentric language is a language with several interacting codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries.
In some cases, the different standards of a pluricentric language may be elaborated until they become autonomous languages, as happened with Malaysian and Indonesian, and with Hindi and Urdu.
German language
1 linksWest Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Central Europe.
West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Central Europe.
The scarcity of written work, instability of the language, and widespread illiteracy of the time explain the lack of standardization up to the end of the OHG period in 1050.
During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the Low Franconian dialects now spoken in Germany, used Middle Dutch or Early Modern Dutch as their literary language and Dachsprache.
Autonomy and heteronomy
0 linksAutonomy and heteronomy are complementary attributes of a language variety describing its functional relationship with related varieties.
Autonomy and heteronomy are complementary attributes of a language variety describing its functional relationship with related varieties.
This may occur if the variety is structurally different from all others, a situation Heinz Kloss called abstand.
Where several closely related varieties are found together, a standard language is autonomous because it has its own orthography, dictionaries, grammar books and literature.
Language secessionism
0 linksAttitude supporting the separation of a language variety from the language to which it has hitherto been considered to belong, in order to make this variety be considered as a distinct language.
Attitude supporting the separation of a language variety from the language to which it has hitherto been considered to belong, in order to make this variety be considered as a distinct language.
Balearic language secessionism is quite marginal and is supported by a few cultural groups. It has very little impact in the population. It is included in a wider (but unorganized) tendency called "gonellisme", which struggles against the standardization of Catalan.
It is a pluricentric language being cultivated through four voluntarily diverging normative varieties, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian, which are sometimes considered Ausbau languages.