Diglossia is a Greek sociolinguistic term consisting of two elements, di – two, glossia – language/tongue. It refers to two types of the same language co-existing, although they each serve a different function.Bilingualism refers to a situation where two different languages exist in a community. [multilingual = 3+]Diglossia can be observed in Greek, Swiss German, and Arabic. In the Arabic context, diglossia refers to the co-existence of the standard form and the colloquial form of Arabic. Arabic diglossia goes back to the pre-Islamic era. Standard form [Al Fusha] = Classical Arabic + Modern Standard Arabic. Contains a high degree of uniformity and is the official standard language in all Arabic speaking countries.Colloquial Arabic [Al a’miyya] = the actual language of everyday activities, mainly spoken, varies from one area/country to another.Some people tried to encourage the replacement of Standard Arabic with Colloquial Arabic. However, they faced the following problems1.Standard Arabic was the language in the traditional heritage [books, Quran, etc]2.Standard Arabic had a religious attitude.
