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di(a)glossia
Mar. 12th, 2026 07:16 amdiglossia (dai-GLOS-ee-uh) or diaglossia (dee-uh-GLOS-ee-uh) - (ling.) n., the use of two varieties of the same language in different social contexts of a speech community.
Typically, one is a high/prestigious mode and the other a low/everyday mode. A common example is High German and Swiss German, common throughout German-speaking Switzerland, but many countries where there's an official version used in schools and broadcasts (often based on the dialect of the capital) and local variants have this (outside the capital, that is). As a linguistics term, introduced in 1959 by American sociolinguist Charles A. Ferguson from Latin diglōssia, bilingual (with influence of French diglossie, bilingual), from Ancient Greek díglōssos, again same meaning.
---L.
Typically, one is a high/prestigious mode and the other a low/everyday mode. A common example is High German and Swiss German, common throughout German-speaking Switzerland, but many countries where there's an official version used in schools and broadcasts (often based on the dialect of the capital) and local variants have this (outside the capital, that is). As a linguistics term, introduced in 1959 by American sociolinguist Charles A. Ferguson from Latin diglōssia, bilingual (with influence of French diglossie, bilingual), from Ancient Greek díglōssos, again same meaning.
---L.
