Ausbau paradigm

The Ausbau paradigm ( Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache paradigm ) was developed by German sociolinguists (Kloss 1967) and subsequently gained popularity in world linguistics . The concept is based on the understanding that there are two independent sets of criteria that can be used to distinguish between language and dialect : one based on ethnosocial functions, the other based on objective structural features. One of its advantages is the replacement of overloaded with additional connotations and politicized designations “language” and “dialect” (so far) with neutral, albeit difficult to pronounce, German terms. This may be useful in order to look at previously insoluble (near) linguistic problems from a new point of view.

• Ausbausprache (ausbausprahe, ausbau-language, " developed language ") is an idiom used autonomously in relation to other languages. Usually this means that it is a functionally full-fledged language that has its own written standard, independent of other languages; functioning in various fields of written and oral communication; often also having a certain official status. Idioms that are not "developed languages", as a rule, are used only in oral communication with a limited circle of people.
• Abstandsprache (abstandsprahe, abstand language, “ spaced language ”) in relation to another idiom is an idiom that is structurally quite different from the first to be considered a separate language.
• Dachsprache (dahshprahe, roof-tongue ) is a language that serves as the standard language (Ausbausprache) for other idioms, usually within the dialect continuum . But often the roof-language combines idioms that are quite far apart (for example, the "dialects" of Italian , German or Chinese ) or even weakly related ( Latin in the Middle Ages ). Moreover, different parts of the same idiom may have different "roofs" (for the " Low German" dialects in the north-east of the Netherlands, the "roof" is Dutch and German in the north of Germany ; for the Kuban dialect of Adygea, the "roof" is not the literary Kabardino-Circassian , and Adyghe language ).