hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2023-11-26

■ #5326. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (4) [terminology][diglossia][bilingualism][sociolinguistics][hel_education][vernacular][prestige]

　「#5306. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (1)」 ([2023-11-06-1])，「#5311. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (2)」 ([2023-11-11-1])，「#5315. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (3)」 ([2023-11-15-1]) に続き，diglossia （二言語変種使い分け）の様々な解説を読み比べるシリーズ．今回は歴史言語学の用語辞典より当該項目を引用する (45--46) ．

diglossia The situation in which a speech community has two or more varieties of the same language used by speakers under different conditions, characterized by certain traits (attributes) usually with one variety considered 'higher' and another variety 'lower'. Well-known examples are the high and low variants in Arabic, Modern Greek, Swiss German and Haitian Creole. Arabic diglossia is very old, stemming from the difference in the classical literary of the language of the Qur'an, on one side, and the modern colloquial varieties, on the other side. These languages just names have a superposed, high variety and a vernacular, lower variety, and each languages (sic) has names for their high and low varieties, which are specialized in their functions and most occur in mutually exclusive situations. To learn the languages properly, one must know when it is appropriate to use the high and when the low variety forms. Typically, the attitude is that the high variety is the proper, true form of the language, and the low variety is wrong or does not even exist. Often the feeling that the high variety is superior derives from its use within a religion, since often the high language is represented in a body of sacred texts or esteemed literature. Diglossia is associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson. Sometimes, following Joshua Fishman, diglossia is extended to situations not of high and low variants of the same language, but to multilingual situations in which different languages are used in different domains, for example, English is regarded as 'high' in areas of India and of Africa and local languages as 'low' or vernacular. This usage for diglossia in multilingual situations is resisted by some scholars.

　上記より2点指摘したい．H と L の2言語変種がある場合に，当該の言語共同体内部では，H こそが真の言語であり，L はブロークンで不完全な変種とみなされやすいというのは，ダイグロシア問題の肝である．共同体の成員にとって，H には権威の感覚が強く付随しているのだ．
　もう1つは，最後に言及されているように，典型的に英米の旧植民地の言語社会において，英語が高位変種として，現地語 (vernacular) が下位変種として用いられている場合，これを diglossia を呼べそうではあるが，この用語の使い方に異論を唱える研究者がいるという事実である．diglossia 問題は，いったい何の問題なのだろうか？

　・ Campbell, Lyle and Mauricio J. Mixco, eds. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 2007.

[ 固定リンク | 印刷用ページ ]