What is an Ausbausprache?

fado72

Ausbausprache is a language which has a standard spelling,a standard grammar and a relatively wide and clear vocabulary(and is thus almost identical with a standard language).Two language forms that allow easy mutual communication can nevertheless be regarded as two different languages if they are each an Ausbausprache according to this definition.Good examples are Serbian and Croatian,Dutch and Afrikaans and to some some extent Hindi and Urdu. The website I used is: http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/.../Ausbauasprache/ Jul 08 09, 5:55 AM

softdevil

The Ausbausprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analyzing and categorizing 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. http://wapedia.mobi/en/Ausbausprache_-_Abstandsprache_-_Dachsprache [Link added -- Zb] Jul 08 09, 9:36 AM