diglossia

alternative diglossy

1. uncountablehuman sciencesThe coexistence in a given population of two closely related native languages or dialects, one of which is regarded as more prestigious than the other; the similar coexistence of two unrelated languages.First known use 1959

   Only very small and isolated communities display neither diglossia nor bilingualism.

   2013, Elien Declercq, Michael Boyden, “Multilingualism and Diglossia in Migration Literature: The Case of Flemish Songs in Northern France”, in Wolfgang Behschnitt, Sarah De Mul, Liesbeth Minnaard, editors, Literature, Language, and Multiculturalism in Scandinavia and the Low Countries, Rodopi, page 20

   3 more examples

   To begin with, of the two varieties involved in diglossia, the one serving (H)igh societal functions, unlike that reserved for (L)ow ones, is nobody's mother tongue: it is learned in later life largely by formal education, and is not used for ordinary conversation. Secondly, the diglossic contrast concerns widely divergent varieties, as opposed to stylistic contrasts which tend to be small-scale. Moreover, diglossia occurs within a single language, while bilingualism or multilingualism, involve far more divergent linguistic systems.

   1994, Periklis Daltas, “The Concept of Diglossia from Ferguson to Fishman to Fasold”, in Irene Philippaki-Warburton, Katerina Nicolaidis, Maria Sifianou, editors, Themes in Greek Linguistics: Papers from the First International Conference on Greek Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 341

   2000, Joshua A. Fishman, Chapter 3: Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism, Li Wei (editor), The Bilingualism Reader, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 81, It is the purpose of this chapter to relate these two research traditions to each other by tracing the interaction between their two major constructs: bilingualism (on the part of psychologists) and diglossia (on the part of sociologists).

   The puzzle of the Cypria concerns specific speech traditions: Atra-ḫasīs is written in Akkadian, a Semitic language, and emerged from an intellectual culture where diglossia with Sumerian was typical.

   2025 December 12, Tom Hercules Davies, “Horses, Wheels, Languages: Greek, Mesopotamian and Indic Epic on the Eurasian Steppe”, in The Classical Quarterly, volume 75, number 1, page 13

2. uncountablemedicineThe presence of a cleft or doubled tongue.

   Synonyms: bifid tongue, cleft tongue