diglossia
[dahy-glos-ee-uh, -glaw-see-uh]
- the widespread existence within a society of sharply divergent formal and informal varieties of a language each used in different social contexts or for performing different functions, as the existence of Katharevusa and Demotic in modern Greece.
- Pathology. the presence of two tongues or of a single tongue divided into two parts by a cleft.
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Origin of diglossia
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
diglossia
- linguistics the existence in a language of a high, or socially prestigious, and a low, or everyday, form, as German and Swiss German in Switzerland
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Word Origin
C20: New Latin, via French, from Greek diglōssos speaking two languages: see diglot
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
diglossia
(dī-glŏs′ē-ə)- bifid tongue
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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