University of Salahaddin

College of Language

DIGLOSSIA
English Department
Subject: Sociolinguistics
Stage: 4th Year
Academic Year 2022- 2023

Lecturer: Harawaz Lukman Soranni

Email: harawaz.soranni@su.edu.krd
 Diglossia
• The term diglossia was introduced into the
English language literature on sociolinguistic
by Charles A. Ferguson (1959). In order to
describe the situation found in places like Greece,
the Arabic-speaking world In general ,German speaking Switzerland.
• Charles A. Ferguson claims that Diglossia is relatively stable language situation , in
which in the addition of primary dialect Of the language there is a divergent highly
codified superposed variety which is learnt largely by formal education and is used for
most written and formal spoken purpose
It is important to note…
• Diglossia
is a kind of situation where two variation of
language happens in same time. Its not a dialect. If a
language is dialect that language will not be called diglossia
 According to Holmes...
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 gives further details…

“No one uses H for everyday interaction.

In Arabic-speaking countries, for instance,
classical Arabic is revered as the language of
the Koran. It is taught in school and used for
very formal interactions and in writing.
But for most everyday conversations in
Arabic-speaking countries people use the everyday colloquial variety.”
Ferguson’s nine features of diglossic
language situation
1. The first criterion is Function; one of the most important on the list, for it
shows that H and L have different functions, they do not overlap. They are
used in different domains that a student could be solving an assignment in H
(Standard Arabic) and at the same time chatting with his friend about the
same assignment in L.
• 2. The second criterion is Prestige; as the diglossic situation requires two
varieties H and L, the high variety is always considered as prestigious. This
attitude is so powerful sometimes that speakers may deny ever using L varieties,
and see it as not a language, but it is never truly honest. In an example, Ferguson
illustrated by Americans preferring to hear a play or some poetry in H variety
even though they may not understand the whole text. Ferguson called this as
“Self Deception”.
3. The third criterion: literary heritage.
A society’s heritage and literary works are always in H variety, in all
languages. Ferguson claims “this case was fixed for a long time that H
is seen as the legitimate language of literature. Consequently, H
serves as the standard variety of the language, as the case of Arabic
and Greek.”
4. Children acquire L variety as their mother
tongue. Acquisition, Ferguson’s fourth
criterion draws the distinction between the
two varieties H and L, for L is acquired as any
mother tongue, at home, with no explicit
grammar or rules. As opposed to H, the level
of proficiency is never achieved in H unless via
formal education. This difference in method of
acquisition is very important. The
grammatical structure of L is learned without
explicit discussion of grammatical concepts;
the grammar of H is learned as rules to be
imitated.
5. Standardization as the fifth criterion says H variety is considered as
a standard variety. It is codified and accepted by the community, in
addition to dictionaries. This means that variation form H is limited,
while L variety has a wide range of variation in pronunciation,
grammar, and vocabulary.
6. Stability is the sixth of Ferguson’s criteria. It serves as a solution
to the communicative tensions that arises in diglossic situations. It
may be resolved by the use of relatively uncodified, unstable,
intermediate forms the language (Arabic: al-lugah al-wusta), and
repeated borrowing of vocabulary items from H to L.
7. One of the striking differences between H and L according to Ferguson
is Grammar, his seventh criterion. H grammar is more complex than L; he
stated, «It is certainly safe to say that in diglossia there are always
extensive differences between the grammatical structures of H and L».
By differences, he meant that H has grammatical categories not present in
L, like an inflectional system of nouns and verbs that may not exist in L
varieties.
8. H and L share the Lexicon, Ferguson’s eighth criterion, but H
includes in its lexicon terms that are not present in L, for subject
containing those terms are not discussed in L variety. The same could be
said about H lacking some L terms. What is interesting is what
Ferguson said: «...a striking feature of diglossia is the existence of
many paired items, one H one L, referring to fairly common concepts
frequently used in both H and L, where the range of meaning of the
two items is roughly the same, and the use of one or the other
immediately stamps the utterance or written sequence as H or L».
Moreover, he gave the example in Arabic, when a journalist hears
someone talking in L but the written version of it will be in H.
9. Phonology, Ferguson’s ninth and last criterion,
two kinds of systems are discerned. One is where
H and L share the same phonological elements, but
H may have more complicated morphophonemics.
A second type is one where H has contrasts that L
lacks, L may `borrow' elements as tatsamas, using
the H variety contrast in that particular item.
Attitudes to H vs L in a diglossia situation
• Normally, attitudes towards the two codes used in a diglossia situation are
complicated. People generally admire the H variety even when they can’t
understand it. Attitudes to it are usually very respectful. It has prestige in the
sense of high status. These attitudes are reinforced by the fact that the H
variety is the one which is described and ‘fixed’, or standardised, in grammar
books and dictionaries. People generally do not think of the L variety as worth
describing. However, attitudes to the L variety are varied and often uncertain.
In many parts of Switzerland, people are quite comfortable with their L
variety and use it all the time – even to strangers. In other countries, where the
H variety is a language used in another country as a normal means of
communication, and the L variety is used only locally, people may rate the L
variety very low indeed.
Diglossia with and without bilingualism
Diglossia is a characteristic of speech communities rather than
individuals. Individuals may be bilingual. Societies or communities are
diglossic. In other words, the term diglossia describes societal or
institutionalised bilingualism, where two varieties are required to cover
all the community’s domains. There are some diglossic communities
where there is very limited individual bilingualism
There are four possible scenarios:
1. Both diglossia and bilingualism: a situation where the society is
diglossic, two languages are required to cover the full range of
domains, and (most) individuals are bilingual.

2. Bilingualism without diglossia: a situations where individuals are

bilingual, but there is no community-wide functional differentiation
in the use of their languages. Many English speaking countries fit
this description. Individuals may be bilingual in Australia, the USA,
England and New Zealand, but their two languages are not used by
the whole community in different domains.
3. Diglossia without bilingualism: a situation of monolingual
communities where two varieties are used one as H and the other L
within the same language

4. Neither diglossia nor bilingualism: a situation of monolingual

groups with isolated ethnic communities where there is little contact
with other linguistic groups.