ABSTRACT
Naming languages is a similar process, but allocating individual varieties to a particular language may be more arbitrary and more complicated than is the case with types of flower or car, and there may be other reasons than convenience or communicative efficiency for doing so. European language names are most commonly based either on the names of tribes or peoples or on the names of geographical locations; some of the labels used for German follow these two patterns, but others derive not from people or places but from language itself. Linguistic varieties spoken on either side of the Dutch-German border sound very similar, but their users will consider that they are speaking forms of Dutch and German, respectively, and will acknowledge standard Dutch and standard German as their respective points of reference, as the authoritative forms of their language.
