The purpose of this website is to provide information on the topic of diglossia. The data were gathered from websites, academic papers, maps and videos. Here, a student of the English Language and Culture may be able to find academic instruction and bibliography for papers and articles as well as curiosities about the phenomenon of diglossia.
Diglossia can be defined as a sociolinguistic phenomenon in which two languages or varieties of a language exist independently from one another within a speech community, with each having different social functions and used in different social situations from one another. Diglossic language situations are defined by the existence of a "low" variety (L), used in the everyday language of the majority of the population (and also usually their native language), and a "high" variety (H), used in specific formal situations (and usually spoken only by a minority of the population). In certain cases, there is a preference for the "high" variety as the language of literature, written communication and formal education, whereas the "low" variety is considered by its own speakers as a "degraded" version of the language. However, there is a movement of change towards these conceptions, and more countries with diglossic languages are beginning to use the "low" variety in situations where they were not suitable before.
Ferguson (1959) listed some social situations and the varieties which are used accordingly:
Social situation | H | L |
Sermon in church or mosque | X | |
Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks | X | |
Personal letter | X | |
Speech in parliament, political speech | X | |
University lecture | X | |
Conversation with family, friends, colleagues | X | |
News broadcast | X | |
Radio ‘soap opera’ | X | |
Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture | X | |
Caption on political cartoon | X | |
Poetry | X | |
Folk literature | X |