    in linguistics, diglossia (;  <  prefix denoting two, from , twice + , language + , suffix denoting state or attribute, "speaking two languages") refers to a situation in which two dialects or usually closely related languages are used by a single language community. in addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labelled "l" or "low" variety), a second, highly codified variety (labelled "h" or "high") is used in certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used for ordinary conversation. the high variety may be an older stage of the same language (e.g. latin in the early middle ages), or a distinct yet closely related present day dialect (e.g. norwegian with bokmÃ¥l and nynorsk, or chinese with mandarin as the official, literary standard and colloquial topolects/dialects used in everyday communication). other examples include literary katharevousa versus spoken demotic greek, indonesian, with its baku and gaul forms,james n. sneddon ``diglossia in indonesian' '. "bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde", vol. 159, no. 4 (2003), pp. 519â549 and the dravidian language tamil of southern india and telugu with their respective high and low registers. == etymology == the greek word Î´Î¹Î³Î»ÏÏÏÎ¯Î± (diglÅssia) normally refers to bilingualism in general, but was first used in the specialized meaning explained by emmanuel rhoides in the prologue of his parerga in 1885. the term was immediately adapted into french as diglossie by the greek linguist and demoticist ioannis psycharis, with credit to rhoides. the arabist william marÃ§ais used the term in 1930 to describe the linguistic situation in [[arabic language|arabic]
Diglossia Language_versus_dialect Sociolinguistics