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Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache
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The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss (1967). They are designed to capture the idea that there are two separate and largely independent sets of criteria and arguments for calling a variety an independent "language" rather than a "dialect": the one based on its social functions, and the other based on its objective structural properties.
usbausprache may be translated literally as 'upgrade language', although Heinz Kloss describes it as "language by development", Abstandsprache as 'distance language' and Dachsprache as 'umbrella language' (literally: 'roof language').
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Encyclopedia
The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss (1967). They are designed to capture the idea that there are two separate and largely independent sets of criteria and arguments for calling a variety an independent "language" rather than a "dialect": the one based on its social functions, and the other based on its objective structural properties.
Terminology
Ausbausprache may be translated literally as 'upgrade language', although Heinz Kloss describes it as "language by development", Abstandsprache as 'distance language' and Dachsprache as 'umbrella language' (literally: 'roof language'). The terms are often rendered with the qualifier untranslated in English, as ausbau language and abstand language.
Ausbausprache
A variety is called an ausbau language if it is used autonomously with respect to other related languages. This typically means that it has its own standardized form independent of neighbouring standard languages. This often involves being taught in schools, and being used as a written language in a wide variety of functions, possibly including that of an official national language. In contrast, varieties that are not ausbau languages are those that are only spoken and typically only used in private contexts.
Abstandsprache
A variety is called an abstand language in relation to another language if both are so different from each other that the one cannot be considered a dialect of the other. This criterion deals with objective structural properties of the language systems. The framework does not in itself specify exactly how "distance" is to be measured objectively. An often used, but debated criterion is mutual intelligibility. A typical example of an abstand language is Basque with respect to Spanish. Abstandsprachen may be deemphasized in languages where the dachsprache has a long written tradition. There is for example, a great deal of abstand between Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial and between Mandarin and Cantonese as well as Shanghainese.
Interrelation of Ausbausprache and Abstandsprache
A language may be an abstand language without being an ausbau language. This is often the case with minority languages used within a larger nation state, where the minority language is used only in private and all official functions are performed in the majority language. On the other hand, a language may be an ausbau language even when it has relatively little abstand from its neighbours. Examples are the Scandinavian languages Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, which are mutually intelligible to a large degree but nevertheless constitute three separate languages on criteria of ausbau. The concept of ausbau is particularly important in cases where the local spoken varieties across a larger region form a dialect continuum. In such cases, the question of where the one language ends and the other starts is often a question more of ausbau than of abstand. For instance, the Low German dialects of Dutch and German on some sides of the Dutch-German border are similar, with both languages merging to some degree; nevertheless, on the level of the ausbau standard languages Dutch and German clearly constitute two separate languages. In some instances, ausbau languages have been created out of dialects for purposes of nation building. This applies for instance to Luxembourgish vis-a-vis German, or to Macedonian vis-a-vis Bulgarian. Other examples of ausbau languages are Persian of Iran and Afghanistan (cf. Dari), Serbian and Croatian, Dutch and Afrikaans, Malay and Indonesian and to some extent Hindi and Urdu, Tamil and Malayalam.
Dachsprache
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. Similarly, Euskara Batua (Standard Basque) and the Southern Quechua literary standard were both developed as standard languages for dialect continua that had historically been thought of as discrete languages with many dialects and no "official" dialect. Standard German and standard Italian to some extent function in the same way. Perhaps the most widely used Dachsprache is Modern Standard Arabic, which links together the speakers of many different, often mutually unintelligible Arabic dialects.
Kloss has also used the term pseudo-dialectized abstand language for cases where a variety is so different from its Dachsprache that it ought to be regarded as a separate language on abstand grounds, but is nevertheless treated more like a dialect in social practice. Examples include Low German vis-a-vis (High) German, Sardinian vis-a-vis Italian, Occitan vis-a-vis French, Gheg Albanian vis-a-vis (Tosk) Albanian, Cantonese vis-a-vis Mandarin or Maithili vis-a-vis Hindi.
Change of roles during history
There are several instances of languages, and language pairs, which have undergone role changes during history. Low German for instance was both ausbau language and dachsprache of few thousand local dialects in the Netherlands, in North, Central, and former East Germany (today Northern Poland) and in parts of the baltic states and their former German (nowadays Russian) vicinity. With the end of the Hanse, Low German lost its state as an official language to a large degree. Approximately at the same time Dutch started to replace Low German as a dachsprache of the Low German dialects in the Netherland which form today's Nedersaksisch group, and most Central German dialects went under the umbrella of the evolving High German. Only parts of Northern Germany kept Low German, while it mainly disappeared from the East rim of the Baltic Sea. Today, Low German has become a group of dialects of German under the dachsprache Standard German to a large degree. Geographically distant Low German varieties, if they survived at all, have often become abstandsprachen of one another, especially pairs being under the Dutch versus the German umbrella, but none of those near the border. This happened despite the fact of notable emigration/immigration streams in either direction between West (Dutch) and East (Prussian, now manly Polish, and Russian) of the area of Low German languages, motivated both by religious intolerance, and labour need. In the West Central German dialect area, with the cease of the dominance of Low German in trade and office use, social divergence of language development, and central government influence, lead to diglossy which in part still pertains. Modern Kölsch as a spoken language developed independent of written language after the switch to New High German spelling. Although widely referred to as dialects by the public, West Central German languages such as Kölsch, Palatinate German, Luxemburgish, et al, linguistically are quite distant from Standard German, but with the recent exception of Luxemburgish, are not ausbau languages.
See also
External links
There are useful definitions included in these two scientific articles:
- Peter Trudgill, Globalisation and the Ausbau sociolinguistics of modern Europe (2004)
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