page_title: Digraphia
hierarchical_section_title: Digraphia
caption_attribution_description: English: Signpost showing w:Diglossia and w:Digraphia in the Hindustani language cropped.
context_page_description: In sociolinguistics, digraphia refers to the use of more than one writing system for the same language. Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language, while diachronic digraphia is the replacement of one writing system by another for a particular language.
  Hindustani, with an Urdu literary standard written in Arabic script and a High Hindi standard written in Devanagari, is one of the 'textbook examples' for digraphia, specifically synchronic. Other examples of synchronic digraphia include:
  Kazakh language: Arabic in Xinjiang, Cyrillic in Kazakhstan but to be replaced by Latin in 2025
  Konkani language is written in no fewer than three scripts; Devanagari, Kannada and Roman.
  Punjabi which uses two different writing systems: Gurmukhi script, used in Punjab in India, and Shahmukhi, though there is no difference when both of these scripts are read or pronounced.
  Serbian, which is equally written in both Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and Gaj's Latin alphabet, and practically all speakers of Serbian can read and write both scripts.
context_section_description: In sociolinguistics, digraphia refers to the use of more than one writing system for the same language.  Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language, while diachronic digraphia (or sequential digraphia) is the replacement of one writing system by another for a particular language.
  Hindustani, with an Urdu literary standard written in Arabic script and a High Hindi standard written in Devanagari, is one of the 'textbook examples' for digraphia, specifically synchronic. Other examples of synchronic digraphia include:
  Kazakh language: Arabic in Xinjiang (China), Cyrillic in Kazakhstan but to be replaced by Latin in 2025 (see Kazakh alphabets)
  Konkani language is written in no fewer than three scripts; Devanagari, Kannada and Roman.
  Punjabi which uses two different writing systems: Gurmukhi script, used in Punjab in India, and Shahmukhi (an Arabic script), though there is no difference when both of these scripts are read or pronounced.
  Serbian, which is equally written in both Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and Gaj's Latin alphabet, and practically all speakers of Serbian can read and write both scripts.
  Marathi was historically written simultaneously in Modi script and Balbodh Devanagari until the 1940s, after which Devanagari was preferred over Modi script due to a lack of printing infrastructure for the latter 
  Kashmiri, with a situation very much like Hindustani, though without the two literary standards being considered different languages. Kashmiri written in Shaaradaa/Sharda, Devanagari, Nastaliq & Roman scripts. Out of these Sharada is ancient most and was is in use till 1950s.
  And now it is being revived by Kashmiri Pandits.
  Examples of diachronic digraphia include
  Kazakh: Cyrillic to Latin
  Most languages previously spoken in the Soviet Union excluding East Slavic languages: Latin to Cyrillic
  Korean: used to be written in Hanja, then Hangul
  Malay: traditionally written in Jawi, but largely replaced by Roman.
  Mongolian: Mongolian script (with many short-lived alternatives including ʼPhags-pa) to Cyrillic
  Turkish: which replaced a Perso-Arabic writing system with a Latin-based system in 1928.
  Vietnamese: used to be written in Chữ Nôm, then replaced with Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet
  Digraphia has implications in language planning, language policy, and language ideology.
caption: Hindustani is an example of synchronic digraphia. Pictured is a road sign in India, with the Perso-Arabic script above and the Devanagari script below, with an English translation at the bottom.
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