Diglossia

Nouf A. Alowais

Department of European Language and Literature, King Abdulaziz University

LANE 626: Sociolinguistics

Presentation

Prof. Nuha Alshurafa

February 7, 2024
 OUTLINE

• Diglossia
• Attitudes to H vs. L in a diglossia
situation
• Diglossia with or without bilingualism
 Diglossia

Definition
“A condition in a society where two varieties of one language exist side by side
and each has a certain role”.

(Kaye, 2001).
 Diglossia cont.,

Charles Albert Ferguson

(July 6, 1921 – September 2, 1998)
1- He was an American linguist
2- He was one of the founders of sociolinguistics
3- He is best known for his work on diglossia
4- The TOEFL test was created under his leadership at
the Center for Applied Linguistics

(Kaye, 2001).
 Diglossia cont.,

Example:

• In Eggenwil, a small town in the Aargau canton of Switzerland, Silvia, a bank-

teller, knows two very distinct varieties of German. One is the local Swiss German
dialect of her canton which she uses in her everyday interactions. The other is
standard German which she learned at school, and though she understands it very
well indeed, she rarely uses it in interaction. Newspapers are written in standard
German, and when she occasionally goes to hear a lecture at the university it may
be in standard German.

• Arabic-speaking countries, Greece, and French (Holmes & Wilson, 2022).

 Diglossia cont.,

DIGLOSSIA: PHENOMENON AND LANGUAGE

THEORY

Simanjuntak et al., 2019)

 Diglossia cont.,

This term has been used both in a narrow sense and in a much broader sense and we
describe both. In the narrow and original sense of the term, as defined by Charles
Ferguson, diglossia has three crucial features:

1- Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community, with one
regarded as a high (or H) variety and the other a low (or L) variety.

2- Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other.

3- No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

(Holmes & Wilson, 2022).

 Attitudes to H vs. L in a diglossia situation

Example 7 (French as the H variety and Haitian Creole as the L variety)

• A century and a half ago a Swiss traveler in Haiti expressed his annoyance at the
fond complacency with which the white Creoles regarded their Patois. He was
sharply answered by a Creole, who declared: “There are a thousand things one
dares not say in French, a thousand voluptuous images which one can hardly render
successfully, which the Créole expresses or renders with infinite grace.”

(Holmes & Wilson, 2022).

Diglossia with and without bilingualism

(Holmes & Wilson, 2022).

 CONCLUSION

• Diglossia
• Attitudes to H vs. L in a diglossia
situation
• Diglossia with or without bilingualism
Any questions?
 REFERENCES

Holmes, J., & Wilson, N. (2022). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (6th ed.).

Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367821852

Kaye. S. A. (2001). Diglossia: The state of the art. International Journal of the

Sociology of Language, 2001(152), 117-129.

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2001.051
 REFERENCES

Simanjuntak, F., Haidir, H., Junaidi & Pujiono, Mhd. (2019).

Diglossia: Phenomenon and language theory. European Journal

of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, 3(2).

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3365366
Thank you