Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache
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Categories: Language varieties and styles | Linguistics
The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists, e.g. Heinz Kloss or Joshua Fishman, for analyzing and categorizing languages and dialects, and for distinguishing the concepts. Note that Sprache is the German word for language. The first occurrence of 'ausbau language' in the scientific literature is in Heinz Kloss, Abstand-languages and Ausbau-languages (Anthropological linguistics, 1967, 9).
Ausbausprache may be translated literally as 'upgrade language', Abstandsprache as 'distance language' and Dachsprache as 'umbrella language' (literally: 'roof language').
Abstandsprache (also called an abstand language) is a language form that is so different from every other language that it cannot be regarded as a dialect of any another language, whether or not it is itself an Ausbausprache (almost identical with standard language). This does not necessarily mean that the language is not in any way related to another language, but that there is no mutual comprehensibility in either the spoken or written forms.
An Ausbausprache (also called an ausbau language) is a language almost identical with a standard language that has been built up as a separate language for nation-building purpose, with a standard spelling, a standard grammar and a relatively wide and clear vocabulary. Two language forms that allow easy mutual communication are regarded as two different languages by sociolinguists if they are each an Ausbausprache according to this definition. Good examples are Dari and Farsi, Serbian and Croatian, Danish and Bokmål Norwegian, Dutch and Afrikaans, Luxemburgian language and German, and to some some extent Hindi and Urdu.
Dachsprache means a language form that serves as standard language for different dialects, mostly in a dialect continuum, even though these dialects may be so different that mutual intelligibility is not possible on the basilectal level between all dialects, particularly those separated by significant geographical distance. In 1982, "Rumantsch Grischun" was developed by Heinrich Schmid as such a Dachsprache for a number of quite different Romansh language forms spoken in parts of Switzerland. Standard German and standard Italian to some extent function in the same way. Perhaps the most widely spoken dachsprache is Modern Standard Arabic, which links together the speakers of many different Arabic dialects.
External links
There are useful definitions included in these two scientific articles
- Peter Trudgill, Norwegian as a Normal Language (2002)
- Peter Trudgill, Glocalisation and the Ausbau sociolinguistics of modern Europe (2004)
Further information
- de:Heinrich Schmid: German Wikipedia on the linguist mentioned in the examples.br:Ausbausprache
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