Islands, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Albanian language has two main varieties Gheg and Tosk. Gheg is spoken to the north and Tosk spoken to the south of the Shkumbin river. Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on Tosk. The Belarusian language features two orthographic standards: official Belarusian, sometimes referred to as narkomaŭka, and Taraškievica, also known as "classical orthography". The division stems from 1933 reform believed by some to be an attempt to artificially similarize Belarusian and Russian languages. Originally, these standards differed only in written form, but due to Taraškievica being widely used among Belarusian diaspora, it grew some distinct orthoepic features, as well as differences in vocabulary. Afrikaans varieties of South Africa and Namibia. See also Abstand and ausbau languages Binary distribution Dialect continuum Diasystem Diglossia Digraphia Language secessionism Lingua franca Macrolanguage Mutual intelligibility Standard language Variety (linguistics) World language References Bibliography Clyne, Michael G.; & Kipp, Sandra. (1999). Pluricentric languages in an immigrant context: Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. . (ÖNB). Further reading External links Language Attitudes and language conceptions in non-dominating varieties of pluricentric languages by Rudolf Muhr International working group on Non-Dominant Varieties of pluricentric languages Language varieties and styles Standard languages Sociolinguistics