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Etymology

The Greek word διγλωσσία (diglossía), from δί- (dí-, "two") and γλώσσα (glóssa, "language"), meant bilingualism; it was given its specialized meaning "two forms of the same language" by Emmanuel Rhoides in the prologue of his Parerga in 1885. The term was quickly adapted into French as diglossie by the Greek linguist and demoticist Ioannis Psycharis, with credit to Rhoides.

The Arabist William Marçais used the term in 1930 to describe the linguistic situation in Arabic -speaking countries. The sociolinguist Charles A. Ferguson introduced the English equivalent diglossia in 1959 in the title of an article. His conceptualization of diglossia describes a society with more than one prevalent language or the high variety, which pertains to the language used in literature, newspapers, and other social institutions. The article has been cited over 4,000 times. The term is particularly embraced among sociolinguists and a number of these proposed different interpretations or varieties of the concept.