Hello everyone and welcome to the LangFocus channel. My name is Paul.
This is another quick video about a linguistic concept.
This one is about something called "Diglossia".
This word "Diglossia" originated from a Greek word meaning a state of being bilingual.
"Diglossia" is a situation in which a community uses two different languages
or two significantly different varieties of one language for different situations
The way it typically works is that one dialect or language is used for a casual every day interaction
and a different standard language is used for more official, formal purposes.
The dialect or language that is used for daily communication is typically a "Low Variety",
meaning that it is not formally learned
and the speakers don't formally learn its grammar or how to write in that language.
It's merely learned as a spoken language.
The language used for more formal situations is the "High Variety"
It is the language that is learned at school, formally.
And speakers learn how to write in that language and they learn the formal grammar rules of that language.
In many cases, the community considers this "High Variety" to be the "pure" or "correct" form of the language
and they want to keep it the same and not let it change.
The Low Variety, on the other hand, is more flexible and it's more likely to change over time
because it is not restricted by the rules of the High language.
"Diglossia" is very common around the world.
The most commonly discussed example is probably the Arabic language.
In every Arabic country, there are different dialects that differ in grammar, vocabulary and pronounciation from other dialects but also from Standard Arabic.
Standard Arabic is a very codified language, which is basically fixed in its rules
and doesn't really change while the dialects are constantly evolving.
In casual speech with other locals, Arabs exclusively use their local dialect.
But in writing, in formal speeches, and the news broadcasts, Standard Arabic is used.
And Standard Arabic is also used as a "bridge language" when communicating with speakers from other dialects.
But really only when necessary, only when there is some problem communicating.
Another example is in Italy, where there are numerous regional languages that function as the "Low Variety"
while Standard Italian functions as the "High Variety".
These regional languages are indeed distinct languages.
Even though they are Romance Languages that are related to Italian, they are different languages.
But they are often refered to as dialects because they are not formally learned at school.
In recent times, these regional languages have faded to some degree.
But "Diglosia" is still very common in Italy.
There are lots of people who speaks a regional language at home or with their close friends.
But with people who are less familiar and in formal situations, they speak Standard Italian.
Another example is the German language, which has one "High Variety", Standard German.
and many different "Low Varieties".
Inside Germany, a lot of the "Low Varieties" have disappeared or are starting to fade.
But one interesting example is in Switzerland.
In Switzerland, Diglossia is almost entirely a distinction
between spoken communication on the one hand and writing on the other.
People in Switzerland don't really accept the idea of their dialects being a "Low Variety".
So they tend to use their dialect in all spoken situations, even informal situations.
And Standard German is used only for reading and writing.
For people who grew up with no real distinction between a "Low Variety" and a "High Variety",
Diglossia might seem like a bizarre situation, that's difficult to wrap their head around.
But languages and the way we use them are fascinating and full of mystery.
The concept of Diglossia is one that will definitely come up in a lot of my future videos.
So I wanted to make a quick little video about it so that you are familiar with the concept.
Now I want to take a moment to say thank you to all of the people who have supported me on Patreon so far.
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But, in the meantime, I appreciate your viewership.
Thank you for watching and have a nice day!