Diglossia 雙層語言 (双层语言)

shuāngcéng yǔyán · from Greek

What is diglossia?

Diglossia is when a community uses two varieties of a language for different jobs: a high one for writing and formal use, a low one for everyday speech.

Charles Ferguson defined the term in 1959. Before the 1919 May Fourth movement, Chinese writing used Classical Chinese (文言 wényán) while people spoke vernaculars. Hong Kong today writes Standard Written Chinese but speaks Cantonese, a form of diglossia.

Examples

Classical Chinese 文言 wényán vs vernacular 白話 báihuà; Hong Kong written 他們 vs spoken Cantonese 佢哋 keoi5 dei6 (they); Swiss Standard German vs Swiss German

Kungfucius says: Hong Kong writes one language and speaks another. Fluently, and simultaneously.