Autonomy and heteronomy

[2] Where several closely related varieties are found together, a standard language is autonomous because it has its own orthography, dictionaries, grammar books and literature.

[2] In the terminology of Heinz Kloss, these are the attributes of ausbau, or the elaboration of a language to serve as a literary standard.

[1][9] In these terms, Danish and Norwegian, though mutually intelligible to a large degree, are considered separate languages.

[1] Autonomy and heteronomy are largely sociopolitical constructs rather than the result of intrinsic linguistic differences, and thus may change over time.

[13] Sometimes it is stated that examples of varieties that have gained autonomy include Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian,[13] but "the four varieties - Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian - are all totally mutually comprehensible [...] What there is, is a common, polycentric standard language - just like, say, French, which has Belgian, Swiss, French, and Canadian variants but is definitely not four different languages.

Local dialects of the West Germanic continuum are oriented toward either Standard Dutch or Standard German depending on which side of the border they are spoken. [ 6 ] Bordering dialects are generally mutually intelligible, despite their orientation to either standardized variety.