Diglossia
- 2. Ferguson 1959 A rigid form of functional specialization Specialization of two varieties of the same language a relatively stable language situation in addition to the primary dialects of a language (may include standard or regional standards) there is a very divergent, highly-codified (gramatically more complex) superposed variety a vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature vehicle of an earlier period or in another speech community learned largely by formal education used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used for ordinary conversation
- 3. Fishman 1972a Extended Ferguson’s concept to: FUNCTIONAL SPECIALIZATION OF TWO OR MORE LANGUAGES.
- 4. Diglossic Situation Exists in a speech community where two codes perform two separate sets of functions Superposed variety (H) OR HIGH Other varieties - dialects (L) OR LOW Examples: Arabic (H) and colloquial Arabic (L) Standard German (H) and Swiss German (L) Standard French (H) and Haitian Creole (L)
- 5. Specializations of Functions for (H) and (L) Example: ARABIC (H) Church & Mosque Sermons Political speeches University Lectures News broadcasts Newspaper editorials and poetry
- 6. Specializations of Functions for (H) and (L) Example: ARABIC (L) Giving instructions to waiters, servants and clerks Personal letters Radio soap operas Captions on political cartoons and folk literature
- 7. 3 Conditions Leading to Diglossia Existence of a large body of literature in a language that is similar to or the same as the indigenous language Literacy in the community is usually restricted to a small elite Involves centuries in establishing the first and second conditions
- 8. Attitudes of speakers of (H) & (L) Regard H as superior to L leading to denying the existence of L Examples: Educated Arabs deny using the L variety of Arabic Haitian Creole speakers claiming they speak only French (=>show clipping of Haitian Creole)
- 9. Attitudes of speakers of (H) & (L) Believe that the H variety is more logical, more beautiful and better able to express important thoughts
- 10. Fishman on Diglossia Generalized the concept of diglossia to bilingual communities Also noted H and L in the heirarchical evaluation of languages Example: Zaire French is reserved for prestige domains like higher education, law and administration Lingala and other indigenous languages for less prestigious domains (low languages)
- 11. Other concepts on Diglossia Interpreted as implying a rather rigid or complementarity or exclusivity of functions This can result also to overlapping or intermeshing Application of diglossia to bilingualism cannot be precise because in bilingualism the codes in question may not be so sharply differentiated into high or low codes