Diglossia, a concept introduced by Charles Ferguson, describes a community where two varieties of a language coexist, each serving distinct roles, referred to as high (H) and low (L) varieties. The H variety is associated with formal domains like education and government, while the L variety is used in everyday informal conversation and is less formalized. Examples include Swiss German vs. Standard German, Tamil's literary vs. colloquial forms, and Classical vs. local Arabic varieties, highlighting the linguistic significance of maintaining both forms for effective communication.

1. DIGLOSSIA
THE CONCEPT OF DIGLOSSIA WAS GIVEN BY
CHARLES FERGUSON (1959).
DIGLOSSIA IS USE TO REFER A SITUATION “WHERE
TWO VARIETY OF A LANGUAGE SITUATED SIDE BY SIDE
THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY, WITH EACH HAVING A
DEFINITE ROLE TO PLAY.
IT IS NOT A DIALECT, IF A LANGUAGE IS DIALECT THAT
LANGUAGE WILL NOT BE CALLED DIGLOSSIA.

2. VARIETIES/DOMAIN OF
DIGLOSSIA
• Ferguson’s definition makes a division between a
HIGH (H) variety and LOW(L) variety. Such
varieties are “linguistically related to but
significantly different from one other”.

3. HIGH (H) VARIETY
• H variety is associated with education, government, religious
and other institutional domains.
• It is also the one that standardized form of the historical
language and the one used for writing and scripted
communication.
• It is more seems like high status, seen as a real language,
written with grammar and dictionaries.

4. LOW (L) VARIETY
• L variety use as unrehearsed for daily communication
within the family and in other informal domain of
interaction .
• It is not standardized and shows a wide range of
variation along geographical and socioeconomic lines.
• It is seems like low status, not written, not seen as proper
language.
• It is more likely to use in informal conversation , jokes,
cinema, movies, street and market etc.

5. continue
H variety is not transmitted naturally while L variety transmitted
naturally.
SOME EAMPLES OF DIGLOSSIA WITHIN THE LANGUAGES OF
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES:-
1- DIGLOSSIA IN SWITZERLAND- There is two varieties of a
language Standard German and Swiss German.
Where Standard German taught at school and used in the
media, literature and most official situations, on other hand
Swiss German used as in common conversation.

6. continue
• 2 DIGLOSSIA IN TAMIL LANGUAGE:- There is also two
varities in this language. The formal or H(HIGH) i.e;
Literary Tamil and the informal or L(LOW) i.e; colloquial Tamil.
LATERARY TAMIL- It is taught in schools, in newspapers,
magazine and need to learn through school.
COLLOQUIAL TAMIL( casual communication)- It is used in
everyday communication. It is learned naturally and not
taught at schools.

7. CONTINUE
• 3 DIGLOSSIA IN MIDDLE EAST:- In Arab language two
varieties are classical Arabic or high variety and local Arabic
or low variety.
• CLASSICAL ARABICS – It is used in formal situation, media,
political speech, religious etc
• LOCAL ARABICS(Iraqi, Morocco, Egyptian) – It is used in
common conversation.

8. CONCLUSION
Diglossia plays imp role in lingusitics as it
provide us two varities of same language with high
and low. So as through high we can stay connected
with our traditional language and use in respected
body of written literature etc. Through low variety
we can converse without use of any grammatical
rules With any one who less educated too.

9. THANK YOU