Autonomous language

An autonomous language or variety is usually a standard language that has its own established norms, as opposed to a heteronomous variety.

An autonomous language will usually have grammar books, dictionaries and literature written in it. Autonomy is largely a sociopolitical construct rather than a result of specific linguistic differences.

Examples of languages that have previously been considered to be autonomous but are now sometimes considered heteronomous are: the Occitan, sometimes thought of as a dialect of French; Cebuano, usually thought of as a dialect or variety of Tagalog or Filipino; and Low Saxon, occasionally considered to be a dialect of German.

Examples of languages that have gained autonomy are Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian from Serbo-Croatian and Afrikaans, which was formerly considered a dialect of Dutch.

See also

• Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache

References

1. Trudgill, P. (1992) "Ausbau sociolinguistics and the perception of language status in contemporary Europe" in International Journal of Applied Linguistics. Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 167-177