3. Diglossia
3.3 Diglossia and Bilingualism
3.3 Diglossia and Bilingualism
Since Fishman’s (1967) discussion of diglossia that included within the scope of the term — extended diglossia — novel notions regarding bilingualism and diglossic speech communities comprised of both genetically and non‐genetically related languages, researchers (Hawkins 1983; Hudson 2002; Coulmas 2005; Marfany 2010) have attempted to clarify the relationship between diglossia — and/or extended diglossia — and bilingualism. In many cases, the two are seen to differ in regard to their relation to Ferguson’s variables of function and acquisition.
According to Hawkins, diglossia is “not a uniquely monolingual phenomenon, but has affinities with bilingual and multilingual situations” (1983:3). It is important to note that although Hawkins claims diglossia does not describe a purely monolingual scenario, he does not go as far as to classify it as entirely bilingual either. He merely professes that diglossia possess some similar characteristics to bilingual or
multilingual scenarios. The distinction is important because it means that Hawkins, unlike Fishman, maintains Ferguson’s original distinction of diglossia as referring to variants of a single language rather than two or more languages in use in a speech community. In his explanation of the difference between bilingual and diglossic situations, Hawkins emphasises the point that “in a bilingual speech community both the codes, H and L, may be fully specifiable, independent languages, natively‐
spoken with descriptively‐based grammars” (1983:18, note 12). It is clear that Hawkins description of the bilingual scenario is presented in such a way that it may be contrasted not only to diglossia as variation within a single language but also across Ferguson’s variables of acquisition and standardization. In contrast to the bilingual scenario in which both H and L have standardized grammars and are acquired as ‘native’ languages, the diglossic scenario as described by Ferguson comprises a language community in which only H has standardized grammar and only L is acquired as a ‘native’ language.
Both Hawkins and Ferguson suggest the existence of quite clear and distinctly delimited speech communities that fit precisely into either a category described as diglossic or one described as bilingual — or, perhaps, multilingual. Hudson,
however, helps to complicate and, perhaps, add a certain actuality to the issue. As Hudson points out, classifications of diglossic, bilingual, and standards‐with‐dialects situations tend to be less categorical that one might hope (2002:2). Obviously, in many cases, there will be areas of overlap and obscurity. As Hudson puts it, “there are examples of societal bilingualism that bear some resemblance to diglossic situations, just as there are, or have been, examples of diglossia that, in certain aspects of their social evolution, resemble societal bilingualism”(ibid.). However, Hudson argues, diglossia and societal bilingualism differ in their “origins,
evolutionary courses of development, and resolutions over the long term” (ibid.). In terms of origin, development, and resolution, Hudson is mainly concerned with issues relating to Ferguson’s variables of acquisition, function and, stability. For example, Hudson explains that distinction between the terms ‘diglossia’ and ‘societal bilingualism’ helps to tease apart issues relating to ‘functional distribution’ of codes and code ‘stability’ or ‘displacement’, on the one hand, and ‘linguistic form’ and
‘language function’, on the other hand (2002:2‐3). Obviously, ‘functional
distribution’ and ‘language function’ refer to Ferguson’s variables of prestige and function, while ‘stability’ and ‘displacement’ refer to stability, and ‘linguistic form’
refers to grammar, lexicon, and phonology. Although Hudson seems to claim that distinction between these two terms helps to distinguish more clearly issues relating to as many as 6 of Ferguson’s 9 variables, it is clear throughout the paper that he feels both function and acquisition remain the critical points of distinction.
However, connections between the 2 variables and the other 7 variables are easily made. For example, Hudson refers to the “critical distinction” of a presence of a
‘prestige group of H‐speakers’ in the bilingual speech communities and an absence of such a group in the diglossic community (2002:21). Apart from just relating to acquisition, the distinction also implicates Ferguson’s variable of prestige. Moreover, Hudson makes it clear that he is not only interested in the dichotomous notion of presence or absence of a prestige group of H‐speakers in these communities but also issues relating to stability that include facilitation or obstruction of the origin,
development, and extinction of codes (ibid.). As a final point of contrast between the two language community scenarios — a point that is mentioned by Fishman (1967) and echoed in both Coulmas (2005) and Marfany (2010), Hudson refers to
Ferguson’s variable of function. As Hudson explains, bilingualism refers to a type of
“individual linguistic versatility” that is based upon an individual language user decision for any number of reasons — habit, prestige, language ability, and so on — to switch variants or languages (2002:43). Diglossia, on the other hand, refers to a scenario in which “societally held norms” direct “differential functional allocation of codes” (ibid.). As a most general form of distinction between the two, function — a speaker in a diglossic situation chooses varieties in order to suit different “contexts
and social domains”, while a speaker in a bilingual situation chooses varieties in order to accord with “strictly personal circumstances” — seems to be the point most often referred to in the literature (Coulmas 2005:135; Marfany 2010:12).
3.4 Diglossia and StandardswithDialects
In his argument against Gumperz (1971) and Fishman’s (1971) extension of Ferguson’s classic definition of ‘diglossia’, Hawkins (1983) offers several useful points upon which the diglossic language situation may be distinguished from the standards‐with‐dialects scenario. Although Hawkins admits similarities amongst various types of speech community — diglossic, bilingual, multilingual, and dialectal, for example — he still insists there are “important differences” between them (1983:14).
As with the aforementioned differences between the bilingual and diglossic
situation, differences between diglossic and standards‐with‐dialects scenarios begin with the distinction of diglossia as a more or less monolingual case. As mentioned before, Ferguson’s original formulation of the idea of ‘diglossia’ referred exclusively to a language community in which different, genetically‐related variants of a single language exist distinctively — across 9 variables — over time. As Hawkins explains,
“the critical differences are to be found in the relationship between H and L” (ibid.).
Hawkins refers to a relationship in which “H varieties are derived from L by the process of purification” (ibid.). Hawkins view of H as having been derived from L offers a clear statement as to the monolingual, genealogical relationship between the two. Moreover, built into Hawkins description of the relationship between H and L within the diglossic situation is an obvious reference to the importance of
Ferguson’s variables. For example, Hawkins’ description of the process as
‘purification’ points to an asymmetrical relationship similar to the one described by Ferguson in regard to variables of prestige, grammar, and phonology. In a statement that confirms an asymmetrical relationship between H and L with respect to