Diglossia

//ˌdaɪˈɡlɒsi.ə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The coexistence in a given population of two closely related native languages or dialects, one of which is regarded as more prestigious than the other; the similar coexistence of two unrelated languages. uncountable

    "To begin with, of the two varieties involved in diglossia, the one serving (H)igh societal functions, unlike that reserved for (L)ow ones, is nobody's mother tongue: it is learned in later life largely by formal education, and is not used for ordinary conversation. Secondly, the diglossic contrast concerns widely divergent varieties, as opposed to stylistic contrasts which tend to be small-scale. Moreover, diglossia occurs within a single language, while bilingualism or multilingualism, involve far more divergent linguistic systems."

  2. 2
    The presence of a cleft or doubled tongue. uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
bifid tonguecleft tongue

Example

More examples

"Diglossia is a type of bilingualism where one can speak two dialects of the same language."

Etymology

From Latin diglōssia. In linguistics introduced 1959 by Charles A. Ferguson, based on French diglossie, from Ancient Greek δίγλωσσος (díglōssos, “bilingual”) + -ία (-ía). Equivalent to di- + -glossia.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.