Abstract:

Diglossia refers to the use of two variants/dialects, higher and lower, of the same language under different conditions by speakers in a society. The American linguist Charles Ferguson systematically linked Arabic and several other languages, to this phenomenon in his famous 1959 article entitled Diglossia. The concept of bilingualism (the ability to communicate in two different languages), which is etymologically synonymous with diglossia, is attributed to the Arabic language by some linguists as a sociolinguistic phenomenon from time to time. The linguistic situation in Arab society is characterized as one of the most complex and specific types of diglossia, because of the existence of a dilemma between these two concepts and both the use of Standard Arabic with more than one sub-dialects. Joshua Fishman, who expanded the framework of the concept of diglossia and thus departed from Ferguson's monolingual description, emphasizes the individual feature of bilingualism and the social aspect of diglossia on the other hand, as the main criteria of difference between these terms. When limited to the use of higher and lower variants of the same language by the same society, it is seen that the concept of diglossia accurately reflects the sociolinguistic situation of today’s Arabic. The Islamic conquests, which began in the 7th century, caused the Arabic dialects to differ both within themselves and with Classical Arabic as well. However, it should be said that dialects existed in Arab society in the pre-Islamic period. The ancient societies living in the Arabian peninsula were divided into two communities known as as hadari (settled) and bedouin (nomadic). In the pre-Islamic period, people of different nationalities such as Aramaeans, Iranians, Hebrews, being in close contact with urban Arabs especially for trade, led to linguistic and cultural interaction. However, the share of Arabs who were at a lower level in terms of civilization, was greater in this interaction. In fact, the difference and divergence between the formal language (fusha) and informal (colloquial) language in terms of structure and function became more evident in the Arab world due to various political and social relations since ancient times, and especially in the colonial period, when speaking with local dialects was encouraged.

Keywords: