Abstandsprache

As distance language refers to a language variety that is so different from any other language variety that they can not possibly be regarded as a dialect of any other variety. This definition is taken independently in part by the degree of expansion ( so Kloss 1978), sometimes only for varieties with a low degree of expansion ( as Bossong 2008). The case underlying linguistic terms' distance and expansion " is discussed in detail in the article spacing and expansion.

As a trivial example of a distance language Basque is called, as the isolated language clearly distinct from all Romance varieties of the geographical environment of the linguistic region or indigenous languages ​​of the Americas, African languages ​​, Australian languages ​​and languages ​​of Papua New Guinea. It remains unclear whether widely separated varieties within a dialect continuum within the definition of " language distance " fall.

The concept of distance language comes as extension language from the speech by sociologist Heinz Kloss (1978 ), which attempts to engage in his book, to examine the many idioms Germanic languages ​​to determine which of them as a dialect, which are interpreted as language and why. His criteria for " distance" are phonetic, grammatical and lexical differences of an idiom to any other, with the difference to neighboring or historically related forms of speech is in the foreground. Due to the " distance" to neighboring languages ​​such as German (High German ), English, Saxon (Low German ) and Dutch is considered eg Frisian as a language and not a dialect of another language.

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