In sociolinguistics, an abstand language is a language variety or cluster of varieties with significant linguistic distance from all others, while an ausbau language is a standard variety, possibly with related dependent varieties. Heinz Kloss introduced these terms in 1952 to denote two separate and largely independent sets of criteria for recognizing a "language":
- one based on linguistic properties compared to related varieties (German: Abstand, IPA: [ˈʔapˌʃtant] , "distance")
- the other based on sociopolitical functions (German: Ausbau, IPA: [ˈʔaʊsˌbaʊ] , "expansion")
This framework addresses situations in which multiple varieties from a dialect continuum have been standardized, so that they are commonly considered distinct languages even though they may be mutually intelligible. The continental Scandinavian languages offer a commonly cited example of this situation. One of the applications of this theoretical framework is language standardization (examples since the 1960s including Basque and Romansh).
