Concept in Definition ABC

At the behest of the Linguistics, the Diglossia designates the coexistence of two or more different languages, which have a different range of use, in the same geographical area. One of those languages ​​has what we might call status prestigious, since it is the language of official use, while the other will appear relegated to inferior social situations. In the event that there are three or more languages, the multiglossia or polyglossia.

It is possible to speak in effect of diglossia when in a nation there is the specific use of an official language and another alternative language, which will be used in certain areas, for example, the first, which is the most formal, will be used in those contexts in which formality and distance prevail, while the other, alternative and of relatively low variety with respect to the first, will be used mostly in contexts informal.

It should be noted that in a diglossia situation such as the one mentioned, it turns out to be improper and even ridiculous to use both variants interchangeably, being that the first one can be

learn formally in academic contexts, on the other hand, the less formal, normally, is acquired as mother tongue.

Some issues that help to further differentiate the two languages ​​indicate that the formal variety It has grammatical categories that appear reduced or disappear directly in the least variant formal; the first has a cultured, specialized, technical, standardized lexicon, as a consequence of the elaboration of grammars, dictionaries, spelling rules, presence of literary body, on the other hand, in the second there is no such cultured lexicon has a vocabulary and expressions typical of popular and family environments and there is no the standardization not even the literary heritage.

Examples of diglossia include French and Haitian Creole in Haiti and German with Swiss German in Switzerland, justly.

Topics in Diglosia