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In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often closely-related) languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields A prestige dialect is the Dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a Speech community which is large enough to sustain more than one dialect Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality The high-prestige language tends to be the more formalised, and its forms and vocabulary often 'filter down' into the vernacular, though often in a changed form. As an aspect of study of the relationships between codes and social structure, diglossia is an important concept in the field of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of Society, including cultural norms expectations and context on the way Language is used

Contents

Etymology

The French term diglossie was first coined (as a translation of Greek διγλωσσία, 'bilingualism') by the Greek linguist and demoticist Ioannis Psycharis. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el Νεοελληνική lit Ioannis (or Yannis Psycharis ( Greek Ιωάννης (Γιάννης Ψυχάρης, French Jean Psychari, 1854-1929 was a philologist The Arabist William Marçais used the term in 1930 to describe the linguistic situation in Arabic-speaking countries. This is an article about the western scholars known as Arabists, not the political movement Pan-Arabism. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

Language registers and types of diglossia

In Charles A. Ferguson's article "Diglossia" in the journal Word (1959), diglossia was described as a kind of bilingualism in a given society in which one of the languages is (H), i. Charles A Ferguson (1921-1998 was a US linguist who taught at Stanford University. e. has high prestige, and another of the languages is (L), i. e. has low prestige. In Ferguson's definition, (H) and (L) are always closely related. Joshua Fishman also talks about diglossia with unrelated languages as "extended diglossia" (Fishman 1967), for example Sanskrit as (H) and Kannada as (L) or Alsatian (Elsässisch) in Alsace as (L) and French as (H). Joshua Aaron Fishman (born 1926 is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking work in the Sociology of language, Language planning, Bilingual education Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state Alsatian ( Elsässerditsch; Alsacien Elsässisch or Elsässerdeutsch) is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Kloss calls the (H) variant exoglossia and the (L) variant endoglossia.

In some cases (especially with creole languages), the nature of the connection between (H) and (L) is not one of diglossia but a continuum; for example, Jamaican Creole as (L) and Standard English as (H) in Jamaica. A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

(H) is usually the written language whereas (L) is the spoken language. In formal situations, (H) is used; in informal situations, (L) is used. One of the earliest known examples is Latin, having diglossia Classical Latin (H) and Vulgar Latin (L). Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin The latter is the tongue from which the Romance languages descended, and is almost completely unattested in text. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all

The (L) variants are not just simplifications or "corruptions" of the (H) variants. Many (L) languages have certain features that are more complex than the corresponding (H) languages: some Swiss German dialects have /e/, /ɛ/ and /æ/ while Standard German only has /ɛ(ː)/ (Berlin 'Berlin', Bären 'bears') and /eː/ (Beeren 'berries'). Jamaican Creole has fewer vowel phonemes than standard Englishes, but it has additional palatal /kʲ/ and /ɡʲ/ phonemes.

Especially in endoglossia the (L) form may also be called "basilect", the (H) form "acrolect", and an intermediate form "mesolect". Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic Note however that there is no "mesolect" in German-speaking Switzerland and in Luxembourg. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Luxembourg (Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg Grand-Duché de Luxembourg Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small Landlocked country in Western Europe, bordered by Whether Paraguay has a form of diglossia is controversial. Guaraní and Spanish are both official languages of Paraguay. Guaraní /gwaraˈni/ (local name avañe'ẽ) is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily of the Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay ( Spanish: República del Paraguay; Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái) is one of the only Some scholars argue that there are Paraguayans who actually don't speak Guaraní. The Chinese language also offers an interesting case.

Ferguson's classic examples include Standard German/Swiss German, Standard Arabic/vernacular Arabic, Standard French/Kréyòl in Haiti, Katharevousa/Dhimotiki in Greece, and Bokmål/Nynorsk in Norway. Swiss German ( Schweizerdeutsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch) is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties Haitian Creole language ( kreyòl ayisyen) often called simply Creole or Kreyòl ( pronounced) is a language spoken in Haiti Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el Νεοελληνική lit Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Bokmål (lit "book language" or Dano-Norwegian is the most commonly used of the two official Norwegian written Standard languages the other Nynorsk (literally "New Norwegian" is one of the two official Norwegian Standard languages the other being Bokmål. However, Kréyòl is now recognised as a standard language in Haiti. Swiss German dialects are hardly languages with low prestige in Switzerland; and colloquial Arabic has more prestige in some respects than standard Arabic nowadays (see Chambers, Sociolinguistic Theory). And after the end of the military regime in 1974, Dhimotiki was made into Greece's only standard language (1976). Regime of the Colonels redirects here For the Polish regime of colonels see Colonels' group. Nowadays, Katharevousa is (with few exceptions, e. g. by the Greek Orthodox Church) no longer used. Harold Schiffman writes about Swiss German: "it seems to be the case that Swiss German was once consensually agreed to be in a diglossic hierarchy with Standard German, but that this consensus is now breaking. " There is also a lot of code-switching especially in the Arabic world; according to Andrew Freeman this is "different from Ferguson's description of diglossia which states that the two forms are in complementary distribution. Code-switching is a term in Linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation " To a certain extent, there is code switching and overlap in all diglossic societies, even German-speaking Switzerland. Furthermore, in Ferguson's definition, diglossia is not bilingualism; however this depends on the scholar's definition of language. For example, different kinds of Arabic are not mutually intelligible; even though many are, but this may also be due to exposure to different varieties rather than inherent linguistic properties. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

Examples where the High/Low dichotomy is justified in terms of social prestige include Italian dialects as (L) and Standard Italian as (H) in Italy and German dialects and standard German in Germany. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. In Italy and Germany, those speakers who still speak dialects typically use dialect in informal situations, especially in the family. In German-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, Swiss German dialects are to a certain extent even used in schools and to a larger extent in churches. Ramseier calls German-speaking Switzerland's diglossia a "medial diglossia", whereas Felicity Rash prefers "functional diglossia". Paradoxically, Swiss German offers both the best example for diglossia (all speakers are native speakers of Swiss German and thus diglossic) and the worst, because there is no clear-cut hierarchy.

English during the Norman invasion

Prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, Old English in its various dialects was spoken in England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland For some centuries following the conquest, England had diglossia between a French-speaking ruling class and commoners who spoke English. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States As French gradually waned, English changed and took over until Modern English was created through the merger of this divide. However, there is still evidence of a division, between "academic" words and "common" words. Many "power" words (such as bailiff) are "academic".

Arabic

Arabic Diglossia Arabic is one of a few language systems in the world that are characterized by the coexistence of two distinct varieties of the same language, used side by side in the same speech community, each having a set of specialized functions. Situational and contextual factors influence the choice of elements from either variety in a speech event. This phenomenon is known as diglossia. It was Charles Ferguson who stimulated interest in this linguistic situation and defined it in his classic article 'Diglossia', (Ferguson 1959). Arabic diglossia, however, is not a recent linguistic development; it dates back to pre-Islamic times. Several aspects of diglossia were discussed in linguistic and literary treaties in the ninth century and have continued up to this day (Altoma, 1969). There are basically two varieties: elevated and low. The elevated one may be called Classical Arabic (CA) or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the latter being the modern counterpart of CA, a term known and used in the West only. To Arabs, both are known as al-fusha الفــصــحى. They share almost the same syntax and morphology, but they exhibit differences in the areas of style and the lexicon. CA is the language of a vast body of Arabic literature, scholarly works, religious studies, the exegesis of the Qur'an, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, and above all it is the language of the Qur'an, the holy book of Muslims. MSA is the language of scholarship, technology, school instruction, government offices, modern literature, the media, and almost all formal transactions and situations, including political speeches and religious sermons in mosques and churches. It is learned mostly in school, but even the least educated person has a measure of comprehension of MSA. MSA is fairly uniform throughout the Arab world; minimal variation is observed. Its rules are codified in grammar books and its lexicon contained in dictionaries. The other is the low variety known as Colloquial Arabic (C), to which Arabs refer as al-'amiyya العامية or ad-darija الدارجة. It is the language that is acquired natively and used for everyday, interpersonal, casual communication in the home and on the street.


Catalan

With the exception of Andorra, Catalan as spoken outside of Catalonia may be diglossic in various grades, from highly to barely diglossic. Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra ( Catalan: Principat d'Andorra) is a small Landlocked country in western Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Diglossia in Catalan is typically stronger in metropolitan areas than in moderately to sparsely populated areas.

This phenomenon affects Alghero (whose local Catalan dialect remains in severe danger of extinction despite the recent revival in its usage), some areas in the Balearic Islands, so-called "North Catalonia" and, in its Valencian modality, some areas in the Valencian Community as well. Alghero ( l'Alguer in Catalan and S'Alighèra in Sardinian) is a town of about 42000 inhabitants (down from 54300 inhabitants since early Algherese (standard Catalan Alguerès, Algherese Alguerés) is the variant of the Catalan language spoken in the city of Alghero ( L'Alguer The Balearic Islands ( Catalan and official Illes Balears; Spanish: Islas Baleares) are an Archipelago in the western Mediterranean Valencian ( valencià) is the historical traditional and official name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the region's native language The Valencian Community ( Valencian and official Comunitat Valenciana; Comunidad Valenciana is an Autonomous community located in central to

Chinese

For over two thousand years, the Chinese used Classical Chinese (Literary Chinese) as a formal standard written language. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese The standard written language served as a bridge for communication throughout China (and other countries in the CJKV area) for millennia. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which constitute the main East Asian languages.

However, the colloquial spoken Chinese varieties continued to evolve. Spoken Chinese ( comprises many regional variants the largest of which are Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, and Min. The gulf became so wide between the formal written and colloquial spoken languages that it was blamed for hindering education and literacy, and some even went so far as to blame it in part for the political turmoil that occurred in China during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This eventually culminated into the adoption of Vernacular Chinese, which was based on modern spoken Mandarin, for all formal communication. Vernacular Chinese is a style or register of the Written Chinese Language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan

Modern Chinese

After the adoption of Vernacular Chinese as the modern standard written language in the early 20th century, diglossia was no longer a big issue among the majority of Chinese speakers who natively spoke Mandarin Chinese. Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan However, Vernacular Chinese and its pronunciation in local dialects still is an acrolect in regions where Mandarin is not spoken natively, such as most of South China. Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic

For instance in Hong Kong, Standard Cantonese is the primary language of spoken communication, although all formal written communication is done in Vernacular Chinese. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Standard Cantonese is the standard variant of the Cantonese (Yuet language Unique among the other Chinese dialects, Cantonese has its own written form, but it is only used in informal contexts and is often inconsistent due to the absence of standardization. Written Cantonese refers to the Written language used to write Colloquial Standard Cantonese using Chinese characters.

Literate Chinese speakers can read and write in the Mandarin-based standard written language. However because the graphemes in Chinese's logographic writing system are not directly linked to pronunciation (though there are quasi-phonetic hints), Cantonese speakers who do not speak Mandarin will read aloud the characters in Cantonese pronunciation only. In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language. A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( The resulting speech is Mandarin-based grammar and vocabulary pronounced word-by-word in Cantonese. If the same sentence were to be spoken using regular colloquial Cantonese, it might be quite different. Here is an example:

English Sentence Please give me his book.
Standard Written Chinese Rendition 請(Please) 給(give) 我(me) 他(him) 的(GENITIVE) 書(book) 。(. )
Standard Mandarin Pronunciation of Writing Qǐng gěi wǒ tā de shū.
Cantonese Pronunciation of Writing Chíng kāp ngóh tā dīk syū.
Written Colloquial Cantonese Rendition 唔該(Please) 畀(give) 佢(him) 本(MEASURE) 書(book) 我(me) 。(. )
Colloquial Cantonese Pronunciation M̀h-gōi béi kéuih bún syū ngóh.
Note: Mandarin romanized using Hanyu Pinyin. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Cantonese romanized using Yale. The Yale romanizations are four systems created during World War II for use by United States military personnel. Written Cantonese shown uses characters not in standard written Chinese. Written Cantonese refers to the Written language used to write Colloquial Standard Cantonese using Chinese characters.

In the above example, note the switching of the direct and indirect objects and the use of different vocabulary for certain words in the standard Chinese and colloquial Cantonese renditions. In addition, Cantonese allows the use of measure words to serve in the place of a genitive particle. In Linguistics, measure words, known more formally as numeral classifiers and also called counters, count words, counter words, or In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore

Cantonese pronunciation of standard written Chinese is generally understandable to Cantonese speakers educated in the standard written language. It is most often used in Cantonese newscasts, albeit with certain substitutions of colloquial Cantonese vocabulary so as to make it not sound as stilted. This form of spoken Cantonese is a higher register and can be considered the acrolect to the colloquial Cantonese basilect. In Linguistics, a register is a subset of a Language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting

Classical Chinese

Before the modern adoption of Vernacular Chinese, the diglossic situation also applied to Mandarin speakers when Classical Chinese was the standard written language.

Continuing the previous example for comparison, using Classical Chinese it would be:

Classical Chinese Rendition 求(Request) 爾(you) 予(give) 我(me) 其(his) 書(book) 。(. )
Standard Mandarin Pronunciation of Classical Chinese Qiú ěr yǔ wǒ qí shū.
Cantonese Pronunciation of Classical Chinese Kàuh yíh yúh ngóh kèih syū.

Because Chinese's logographic writing system doesn't indicate exact pronuncation, the pronunciation of Classical Chinese in Old Chinese is generally not possible (though tentative reconstructions of the phonology of Old Chinese have been attempted). Old Chinese ( or Archaic Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese spoken from the Shang Dynasty ( Chinese Instead, Classical Chinese is also generally pronounced according to the local dialect (such as the Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations given above), much like how Cantonese speakers pronounce the modern Mandarin-based Vernacular Chinese using Cantonese.

Unlike the situation with modern Chinese though, Classical Chinese spoken according to the pronunciations of the modern spoken Chinese varieties is still largely unintelligible without training due to the syntax and vocabulary changes that Chinese has undergone since Old Chinese. In addition, sound mergers in the modern dialects cause many distinct words in Classical Chinese to sound homophonous. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning For one notable example, see Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den. The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den ( is a famous example of Constrained writing by Yuen Ren Chao which consists of 92 characters all with the sound shi

Greek

Until the seventies, the Greek language distinguished between Dimotiki, the colloquial language which was used in everyday discussions and the extremely formal and archaic Katharevousa, which was used in more "educated" contexts, as in school, in court, in law texts etc. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language. Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Extreme Katharevousa was, in fact, nearly pure Ancient Greek, and as such, nearly completely unintellegible for children and adults without higher education. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c This was the reason for the Greek language question, which was a heated dispute on which language form was to be the official language of the state. The Greek language question (γλωσσικό ζήτημα short το γλωσσικό was a dispute discussing the question whether the language of the Greek people ( Dimotiki This dispute was eventually settled, and today the single language used in all texts is an educated variant of Dimotiki, which was enriched by many expressions from Katharevousa. Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language. Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual This variant is commonly called Modern Greek. Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el Νεοελληνική lit

Maltese

Malta is officially a bi-lingual country: both Maltese and English are official languages. Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Maltese is, uniquely for Europe, a Semitic language left over from Arab domination of the islands which ended some 900 years ago and English as Malta was a colony until 1964. Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, This article is about a type of political territory For other uses see Colony (disambiguation.

Maltese society has been traditionally quite strongly divided, politically, between the working class and middle and upper classes and this is reflected in their language use. Although all Maltese can speak their native language, the extent to which one uses and is able to speak English often reflects one's background. This is most clearly illustrated by the different newspapers in Malta: the liberal/conservative ones are in English (with names like the Times of Malta and Malta Independent) and the more left-leaning ones are in Maltese. Maltese people of a middle- and upper-class background will often speak English or use code-switching extensively in public. Code-switching is a term in Linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation There have been warnings from several quarters including a linguistics professor from the university of Malta that the Maltese language could become endangered if the government (currently the right of centre Nationalists) does not do more to promote it, in the same way that English displaced Welsh in Wales. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic

Before 1934, Italian was the official language of Malta. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Those in higher class positions spoke Maltese, and were often associated with the Italian irredenta movement, which promoted the unification of Malta with Italy. It was only those of lower class at the time whose ancestors came from Sicily too long ago for them to still be fluent in Italian, that spoke Maltese. Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Today, the influence of the Italian language is still very present in Malta. Not only is it used in the professional workplace, but it is also key to Malta's media, such as Television, Radio, and publications [1].

Portuguese

Further information: Brazilian Portuguese

According to some contemporary Brazilian linguists (Bortoni, Kato, Mattos e Silva, Perini and most recently, with great impact, Bagno), Brazilian Portuguese may be a highly diglossic language. Brazilian Portuguese ( Language code pt-BR Portuguese: português brasileiro or português do Brasil) is a group of Portuguese |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Brazilian Portuguese ( Language code pt-BR Portuguese: português brasileiro or português do Brasil) is a group of Portuguese This theory claims that there is an L-variant (termed "Brazilian Vernacular"), which would be the mother tongue of all Brazilians, and an H-variant (standard Brazilian Portuguese) acquired through schooling. L-variant represents a simplified form of the language (in terms of grammar, but not of phonetics) that could have evolved from 16th century Portuguese, influenced by Amerindian (mostly Tupian) and African languages, while H-variant would be based on 19th century European Portuguese (and very similar to Standard European Portuguese, with only minor differences in spelling and grammar usage). Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages are spoken by indigenous peoples from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. There are an estimated 2000 Languages spoken in Africa. About a hundred of these are widely used for inter-ethnic communication European Portuguese (português europeu in Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects spoken mainly in Portugal but also in places of Africa and Asia The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language Mário A. Perini, a Brazilian linguist, even compares the depth of the differences between L- and H- variants of Brazilian Portuguese with those between Standard Spanish and Standard Portuguese.

Russian

Russian, the language spoken in Russia, was the low language from the Middle Ages till the Baroque period while Church Slavonic served for all official purposes. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox [2] Many Russian abstract and scientific terms have Slavonic morphology, in contrast to the corresponding words from spoken language.

Samples for Slavonic influence in Russian
Russian word Slavonic word Russian term
golos (voice) gylasy glasnaia (vowel)
moloko (milk), kormitj (feed) myleko, pitati mlekopitaiushtiie (mammals)

On the other hand, the language of the Russian Orthodox church suffered significant corruption with Russian vernacular forms after Peter the Great cancelled its official status and subordinated the Church to the State.

Urdu

In Pakistan there is a diglossia between the extremely Persianised Urdu (used by the literary elite such as poets and writers, and the Government officials) to an Urdu that is very similar to Hindi (spoken by common people, and known as Hindustani among the linguists). Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी ہندوستانی Hindustānī, hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː also known as " Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering

Sinhala

Sinhala (also known as Sinhalese), spoken in Sri Lanka, is a diglossic language. Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල ISO 15919: siṁhala ˈsiŋhələ earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the language of the Sinhalese There are several differences between the literary language (also known as Literary Sinhala, LS) and the spoken language (Spoken Sinhala, SS), specially about verbs:

Literary or written Sinhala is commonly understood, and used in literary texts and formal occasions (public speeches, TV and radio news broadcasts, etc. ), whereas the spoken language is used as the language of communication in everyday life. The children are taught the written language at school almost like a foreign language.

Tagalog

Tagalog is the language spoken in the southern part of Luzon, the northermost group of islands in the Philippines. Tagalog is one of the major languages used in the Philippines. Southern Luzon covers the provinces around the capital Metro Manila, including the capital itself. The language spoken there, Tagalog, is the basis for the country's national language, Filipino, which is basically the standardized form of the Tagalog spoken in Metro Manila. Tagalogs from Tagalog-speaking areas, other than Metro Manila, speak their own dialect of Tagalog. Foremost example is that of Batangas, Batangueño Tagalog. When those who speak Batangueño Tagalog, for example, go to Manila, they will eventually learn to use the Manila dialect and speak only their native dialect when they go back to their provinces or when they gather together. At the moment, very little is written using any other dialect of Tagalog other than that of Manila. Also, having a regional accent is viewed to be not beneficial in the Philippines. And although there are some who would maintain their accents, their use is very minimal outside the provinces.

Tamil

Tamil is a diglossic language spoken in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. Tamil Nadu ( Tamil:, Country of the Tamils, t̪ɐmɨɻ n̪aːɽɯ is one of the 28 states of India. The classic form of the language - called "Senthamizh" - is different from the spoken form known since ancient times as Iyatramizh.

The classic form is preferred for writing, and is also used for public speaking. While written Tamil language is mostly standard across various Tamil-speaking regions, the spoken form of the language differs widely from the written form. Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. The diglossic form of Tamil has held back its development as a language. Therefore, Perunchitthranar, a Tamil nationalist and others of his ilk, advocated that all Tamils speak only the pure form of the language, i. e. , Senthamizh.

Tamil fiction-writers use "Senthamizh" for all descriptive writing and use "Iyatramizh" only to narrate conversations between the characters in their works. Even though all Tamils - no matter how educated they are - always converse in colloquial Tamil, Tamil novels used to depict educated people speaking in the classic form. Several decades ago, most Tamil movies only had characters who spoke in classical Tamil.

Regional and caste differences can be distinctly heard in spoken Tamil. Tamil in the state capital Chennai (formerly Madras) is somewhat distinct from that spoken elsewhere. Due to its proximity to Andhra Pradesh, Chennai Tamil has more Telugu loan words than the Tamil spoken in southern Tamil Nadu . Chennai Iyatramizh also often has more words of Urdu (or Deccani) than do varieties of Tamil from elsewhere in the state. Urdu ( ur '''{{Nastaliq اردو}}''' trans Urdū, historically spelled Ordu) is a Central Indo-Aryan language Urdu is a standardised

Throughout Tamil Nadu, there are several varieties of spoken Tamil. Tamil Brahmins speak a sort of "brahmin Tamil". The largely agrarian middle castes converse in their own dialect of Iyatramizh; this is the 'standard' spoken Tamil of today's Tamil movies and fiction. Similarly, the Scheduled Castes (formerly called Untouchables) speak forms of Iyatramizh with clear grammatical differences from the varieties spoken by the so-called higher castes.

However, regional differences are more interesting to note. The Tamil dialects spoken by people in Northern districts of Tamil Nadu like Arcot, Chennai and Southern districts like Tirunelveli and Madurai are somewhat different from each other. Like in other parts of the world, the dialectical differences between various regions are vanishing due to the influence of mass communications. So apparently are the differences between the speech patterns of the various caste groupings in Tamil Nadu. It is important to note that all forms of spoken Tamil have always been mutually intelligible. Also see Tamil for dialectical variations in Iyatramizh

Ukrainian

Using the Matched-Guise Test, Laada Bilaniuk (University of Michigan) administered surveys to 2,000 participants in Ukraine. Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. The Matched-Guise Test is a method of investigation for obtaining individual reactions to types of speech In her article "Diglossia in Flux: Language and Ethnicity in Ukraine", Bilaniuk reports that until now, Russian has been the High language and Ukrainian the Low language. Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. However, her data shows that diglossia in Ukraine is shifting. Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe.

Now, both standard Russian and standard Ukrainian are considered the High languages, and the Low category is filled with all non-standard dialects of the High languages. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages.

Bibliography

Ukrainian/Russian

Yavorska Galyna M. Prescriptyvna lingvistyka yak dyskurs: Mova, kultura, vlada (Prescriptive linguistics as a discourse: Language. Culture. Power). Kyiv, VIPOL, 2000. - 288 p. Yavorska G. Do problemy naivnoyi linguistyky (On the problem of folk linguistics). - Lingvistychni studii. Cherkassy, 1999, # 3. - 13-20. Yavorska G. Dejaki osoblyvosti movnykh kontaktiv blyz'kosporidnenykh mov (do kharakterystyky ukrain's'koho puryzmu) (On contacts of closely related languages: some features of Ukrainian purism). In memoria of K. Trofymovych. L'viv, Litopys, 1998.


Language A/Language B

In 50 years the language will "divide". About 16% of the language in A1 will change, and 16% in A2 also, may be not the same 16%! As a result the percentage will be between 16 and 32. The situation now, 50 years adter World War II in the countries mentioned above is very close to these scientific theoretical results that we have not on the base of research of these countries.

Other sources for reference (by Bilaniuk)

See also

References

  1. ^ Country profile: Malta BBC News; [2008/01/10]; [2008/02/21]
  2. ^ Трубецкой, Н. In Linguistics, a register is a subset of a Language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties A standard language (also standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a Language that A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing A pluricentric language is a Language with several standard versions both in spoken and in written forms. Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of Society, including cultural norms expectations and context on the way Language is used С. (1927). Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Къ проблемѣ русскаго самопознанія.  

Dictionary

diglossia

-noun

  1. (linguistics) the coexistence of two closely related native languages or dialects among a certain population, one of which is regarded to be more prestigious than the other; also, that of two unrelated languages
  2. (pathology) the presence of a cleft or doubled tongue
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