There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference. Specific language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages. This is because dialects do not differ enough from each other to be considered truly separate languages, but there are recognizable differences between them. This is often because the speakers of any given dialect reside in different geographical areas, causing the dialects to develop differently from a shared base language. Anthropological linguists define dialect as the specific form of a language used by a speech community. In other words, the difference between language and dialect is the difference between the abstract or general and the concrete or particular. From this perspective, no one speaks a "language" everyone speaks a dialect of a language. Those who identify a particular dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language are in fact using these terms to express a social distinction. Often, the standard language is close to the sociolect of the elite class. In groups where social standards play less important roles, "dialect" may simply be used to refer to subtle regional variations in linguistic practices that are considered mutually intelligible, playing an important role to place strangers. There are many dialects around the world, by which the linguist simply means that there are many subtle variations among speakers who largely understand each other and recognize that they are each speaking "the same way" in a general sense. Modern day linguists knows that the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. As an example, Romansh came to be a written language, and therefore it is recognized as a language, even though it is very close to the Lombardic Alpine dialects. An opposite example is the case of Chinese, whose variations such as Mandarin and Cantonese are often considered dialects and not languages, despite their mutual unintelligibility, because they share a common literary standard and common body of literature.