Editing Dialect (section)

=== Sociolinguistic definitions ===
[[File:West Germanic dialect diagram.svg|thumb|right|upright=2|Local varieties in the West Germanic dialect continuum are oriented towards either Standard Dutch or Standard German depending on which side of the border they are spoken.{{sfnp|Chambers|Trudgill|1998|p=10}}]]
Another occasionally used criterion for discriminating dialects from languages is the [[sociolinguistic]] notion of [[autonomy and heteronomy (sociolinguistics)|linguistic authority]]. According to this definition, two varieties are considered dialects of the same language if (under at least some circumstances) they would defer to the same authority regarding some questions about their language. For instance, to learn the name of a new invention, or an obscure foreign species of plant, speakers of [[Westphalian language|Westphalian]] and [[East Franconian German]] might each consult a German dictionary or ask a German-speaking expert in the subject. Thus these varieties are said to be dependent on, or [[autonomy and heteronomy (sociolinguistics)|heteronomous]] with respect to, [[Standard German]], which is said to be autonomous.{{sfnp|Chambers|Trudgill|1998|p=10}}

In contrast, speakers in the Netherlands of [[Dutch Low Saxon|Low Saxon]] varieties similar to Westphalian would instead consult a dictionary of [[Standard Dutch]], and hence is categorized as a dialect of Dutch instead. Similarly, although [[Yiddish]] is classified by linguists as a language in the [[High German]] group of languages and has some degree of mutual intelligibility with German, a Yiddish speaker would consult a Yiddish dictionary rather than a German dictionary in such a case, and is classified as its own language.

Within this framework, [[William Alexander Stewart|W. A. Stewart]] defined a ''language'' as an autonomous variety in addition to all the varieties that are heteronomous with respect to it, noting that an essentially equivalent definition had been stated by [[Charles A. Ferguson]] and [[John J. Gumperz]] in 1960.<ref name="Stewart">{{cite book
  | first = William A. | last = Stewart | author-link = William Alexander Stewart
  | chapter = A sociolinguistic typology for describing national multilingualism
  | pages = 531–545 | doi = 10.1515/9783110805376.531
  | editor-first = Joshua A. | editor-last = Fishman
  | title = Readings in the Sociology of Language
  | publisher = De Gruyter | year = 1968
  | isbn = 978-3-11-080537-6
}} p. 535.</ref><ref>{{cite book
  | chapter = Introduction | pages = 1–18
  | first1 = Charles A. | last1 = Ferguson | author-link1 = Charles A. Ferguson
  | first2 = John J. | last2 = Gumperz | author-link2 = John J. Gumperz
  | title = Linguistic Diversity in South Asia: Studies in Regional, Social, and Functional Variation
  | editor-first1 = Charles A. | editor-last1 = Ferguson
  | editor-first2 = John J. | editor-last2 = Gumperz
  | publisher = Indiana University, Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics
  | year = 1960
}} p. 5.</ref> A heteronomous variety may be considered a ''dialect'' of a language defined in this way.<ref name="Stewart" /> In these terms, [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], though mutually intelligible to a large degree, are considered separate languages.{{sfnp|Chambers|Trudgill|1998|p=11}} In the framework of [[Heinz Kloss]], these are described as languages by ''[[abstand and ausbau languages|ausbau]]'' (development) rather than by ''abstand'' (separation).<ref>{{cite journal
  | surname = Kloss | given = Heinz |  author-link = Heinz Kloss
  | title = 'Abstand languages' and 'ausbau languages'
  | journal = Anthropological Linguistics | volume = 9 | number = 7
  | year = 1967 | pages = 29–41
  | jstor = 30029461
}}</ref>