Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache
An Ausbausprache (also called an ausbau language) 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, Danish and Norwegian, Dutch and Afrikaans and to some some extent Hindi and Urdu. See also Abstandsprache.
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.
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 functions in the same way. Perhaps the most widely spoken dachsprache is Modern Standard Arabic, which links together the speakers of many different Arabic dialects.
