Diglossia occurs when there is an assignment of roles to different varieties of languages coexisting in a bi/multilingual speech community.
The codes could be a language or a dialect. Fishman (1980) views diglossia as an enduring arrangement that explains beyond a three-generation period, whereby two codes enjoy secure phonological legitimacy and widely implemented functions.
The four criteria identified by Landry and Allerd (1994:16) for the analysis of the identities of diglossia are linguistic, sociological function, and stability.
In Nigeria, for instance, English is termed the official language, thereby functioning in politics, education, trade and commerce, the media, the judiciary, administration, science, and technology, while our indigenous languages are mere regional languages.
Again, specific roles in a narrow sense can be given to dialects of a language in a community. An instance is a role of education, administration, the media, etc., assigned to English or Educated Nigerian English and the assignment of a mere interactional role to pidgin?
Domains of language use
A significant characteristic of diglossia is the specification of the roles of high (H) and low (L) varieties. This means that the variety is more important than the (H) variety, and each has its domain of use.
Nevertheless, there are instances, although slightly, where the varieties overlap in their designed functions. Domains are institutionally recognised occasions of language use, e.g. homes, offices, schools, churches, mosques, etc.
Sermon in the church or mosque x
Instructions to servants or maids x
Political speech or university lecture x
Personal letter to an official x
Family conversation x
News broadcast x
Soap opera x
Folktale x
Bilingualism with diglossia
This is the situation in a community with two or more languages where the languages are given different roles, e.g. the following are good examples where Nigeria has English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, etc., and the languages are given different roles.
India has English, Hindi, Bengali, etc., and the languages are given different roles; Singapore has English, Mandarin, Malay, etc., and the languages are given different roles.
Paraguay has Spanish and Guarani, and the languages are given different roles; Haiti has French and Creole, and the languages are given different roles.
Nigeria English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc.
India English, Hindi, Bengali, etc.
Singapore English, Mandarin, Malay, etc.
Paraguay Spanish and Guarani
Haiti French and Creole
Bilingualism without Diglossia
This refers to the assignment of equal status to the languages co-existing in a speech community, e.g. Canada with French and English.
Diglossia without Bilingualism
This is a monolingual society with different dialects of a single language, and these dialects are assigned various roles, e.g. standard and non-standard English as used in the USA.
Neither Bilingualism nor Diglossia
Here, both the community and the codes are mono. The community is monolingual, and the language is also mono-dialectal. Such a community is a very closed one with a very small illiterate population, e.g. Koma village in Nigeria.
Features of Diglossia
A diglossic situation has been observed to possess the following features:
Function
This is the specification specialisation of functions of high (H) and low (L) varieties. This means placing a language above the other or assigning official functions to the H variety.
Prestige
It is typical for the languages or dialects of a society to be ranked relative to each other in terms of social status.
For instance, the upper class in the London area of England speaks “public school” English, while the lower class often uses a Cockney dialect.
Consequently, upwardly mobile Cockeys in the business world do take language lessons to measure up to the “public school” speech standard.
This shows that (H) is the prestigious variety, gaining a more positive attitude than (L), which is the stigmatised variety.
Literary heritage
Variety is deliberately chosen for the documentation of literary culture. The literary writing tradition continually points the new breed to the past literary works of the variety.
Nevertheless, L variety may be found in a few writings, such as cartoons or the speech of debased characters in a novel.
AcquisitioLanguage
Language variety is always acquired as a first language, and exposure to his variety, especially in children’s conditions.
This often generates some difficulty when attempts are made to shift usage to the H variety, which is only achieved through formal normative instructions of the norms of the grammatical patterns.
Standardization
The H variety is given priority in the standardisation of the L variety. This often enjoys institutional support as well as an arrangement with a boundary of linguistic usage. Also, dictionaries and grammars document the H variety while the L variety usually lacks such backings.
Grammar
The grammar of both varieties has extensive differences. The morphology of L is often simpler than that of H, with cases and verb inflexions reduced.
Lexicon
As Fergusson puts it, they have a “shared lexicon with variations in form and with differences in use and meaning”. This means that both varieties have different terms for the same objects.
Though the two terms are roughly the same, the use of one or the other automatically stamps the utterance or written text as either H or L.
Phonology
While the L variety diverges from the underlying phonological system and preserves it, the L variety, usually in oral use, subordinates pure phonemic items of H not found in it to those available in its system.
Tabular Representation of the Features of Diglossia
H L
Function Formal Informal
Prestige Superior Inferior
Literary Written Oral/folktale
Heritage/Acquisition Metropolitan Local (Village)
Standardisation codified, not formalised.
Grammar Complex, artificial Simple, national
Stability More stable Less stable
Lexicon Learned words Homely words.
Phonology Educated local accent.
Language contact
Today, most reference books give a figure of around six thousand.
This is a conservative estimate, as many parts of the world have been insufficiently studied from linguistic points of view.
We simply do not know exactly what languages are spoken in some places. There is a popular metaphor in linguistics that “language is a living organism which a born, grows and dies”.
However, when we speak of language contact, we are simply referring to people in different parts of the world who speak a variety of languages coming into contact with one another.
Human beings come into contact in different ways in which human beings mingle, which in essence engenders language contact through politics, religion, economy, education, occupation, culture, science and technology, natural disaster, etc.
Whenever languages come in contact as a result of the aforementioned factors, the end product is often bi/multilingualism as well as bi/multilingualism. You can learning further on this page.
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