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In sociolinguistics, digraphia refers to the use of more than one writing system for the same language. Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language, while diachronic digraphia or sequential digraphia is the replacement of one writing system by another for a particular language.
Hindustani, with an Urdu literary standard written in Urdu alphabet and a Hindi standard written in Devanagari, is one of the "textbook examples" of synchronic digraphia, cases where writing systems are used contemporaneously. An example of diachronic digraphia, where one writing system replaces another, occurs in the case of Turkish, for which the traditional Arabic script writing system was replaced with a Latin-based system in 1928.
Digraphia has implications in language planning, language policy, and language ideology.
Digraphia was modeled upon "the coexistence of two languages or dialects among a certain population", which derives from Greek diglossos "bilingual." Charles A. Ferguson, a founder of sociolinguistics, coined diglossia in 1959. Grivelet analyzes how the influence of diglossia on the unrelated notion of digraphia has "introduced some distortion in the process of defining digraphia," such as distinguishing "high" and "low" varieties.Grivelet (2001), p. 5. Peter Unseth notes one usage of "digraphia" that most closely parallels Ferguson's "diglossia," situations where a language uses different scripts for different domains; for instance, "shorthand in English, pinyin in Chinese for alphabetizing library files, etc. or several scripts which are replaced by Latin script during e-mail usage."Unseth (2005), p. 36.
English digraphic and digraphia were contemporaneous with their corresponding terms in French linguistics. In 1877, Julius Oppert introduced digraphique to describe languages written in cuneiform syllabaries.Oppert, Jules (1877). Review François Lenormant, Études sur quelques parties des syllabaires cunéiformes, Paris 1877; idem, Les syllabaires cunéiformes, Paris 1877. Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen 1877(45–46). 1409–1449. In 1893, Auguste Barth used French digraphisme for Cambodian inscriptions written in Khmer script and Brāhmī script.Bergaigne, Abel (1893). Inscriptions sanscrites du Cambodge edited. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale et autres bibliothèques 27(1). 293–588. In 1971, Robèrt Lafont coined digraphie regarding the sociolinguistics of French and Occitan language.
Although the word "digraphia" is new, the practice is ancient. Darius the Great's (-486 BCE) Behistun Inscription was written in three for Old Persian, Elamite language, and Babylonian.
The Songhay linguist Petr Zima (1974) first used "digraphia" to describe the Hausa language having two writing systems, Boko (Latin script) and Ajami script (Arabic script). Zima differentiated these paired situations.
The anthropologist James R. Jaquith (1976), who studied unconventional spelling in advertising, used "digraphia" to describe the practice of writing brand names in all caps (e.g., Arrid). He described digraphia as "the graphic analog of what linguists call diglossia", and defined it as "different versions of a written language exist simultaneously and in complementary distribution in a speech community."
The sociolinguist Ian R. H. Dale (1980) wrote a general survey of digraphia, defined as, "the use of two (or more) writing systems to represent varieties of a single language."
The sinologist and lexicographer John DeFrancis (1984) used digraphia, defined as "the use of two or more different systems of writing the same language," to translate Chinese shuangwenzhi (雙文制 "two-script system") of writing in Chinese characters and Pinyin. DeFrancis later explained, "I have been incorrectly credited with coining the term digraphia, which I indeed thought I had created as a parallel in writing to Charles Ferguson's diglossia in speech."DeFrancis, John (2006). Prospects for Chinese Writing Reform, Sino-Platonic Papers 171.
Hegyi coined and suggested the terms "bigraphism" and "multigraphism",Hegyi, O. 1979. Minority and restricted uses of the Arabic alphabet: the aljamiado phenomenon. Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 99, No. 2:262-269. but he only used them twice (p. 265; fn. 17, p. 268). However, he did not promote the use of either of these terms, nor follow up on his insights into the importance of studying "the use of two or more different writing systems for the same language... such cases have been more widespread than commonly assumed."
Stéphane Grivelet, who edited a special "Digraphia: Writing systems and society" issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, explains.
Digraphia has some rare synonyms. Orthographic diglossia antedates digraphia, and was noted by Paul Wexler in 1971."Wexler, Paul (1971). "Diglossia, language standardization and purism." Lingua 27, 340. "Orthographic differences are not always a reflection of ethnocultural differences and multiple standards. Different scripts may be used by a single ethnic group for different purposes (e.g., secular versus religious literature), in which case we could speak of 'orthographic diglossia'." Bigraphism, bialphabetism, and biscriptality are infrequently used.
Some scholars avoid using the word "digraphia". Describing terminology for "script obsolescence," Stephen D. Houston, John Baines, and Jerrold Cooper say, "'Biscript' refers to a text in two different writing systems. 'Biliteracy' and 'triliteracy' label the concurrent use of two or three scripts."
Some recent scholarship questions the practicality of this synchronic/diachronic distinction. Grivelet contends that, "digraphia is a single sociolinguistic process with two types of outcome (concurrent or sequential digraphia) and with specific features related to the causes and types of development of the various cases.Grivelet (2001), p. 6.
Peter Unseth lists and exemplifies four factors that can influence a language community's choice of a script.
Linguists who study language and gender have analyzed gender-differentiated speech varieties ("genderlects", usually spoken by women), and there are a few cases of scripts predominantly used by women. Japanese hiragana was initially a women's script, for instance, used by Murasaki Shikibu to write The Tale of Genji. Chinese Nüshu script (literally "women's writing”) is a simplification of characters that was traditionally used by women in Jiangyong County of Hunan province.Unseth (2005), p. 37.
Not only scripts, but also letters can have iconic power to differentiate social groups. For example, the names of many heavy metal bands (e.g., Motörhead, Infernäl Mäjesty, Mötley Crüe) use umlauts "to index the musical genre as well as the notion of 'Gothic' more generally."Sebba (2009), p 40. This digraphic usage is called the "metal umlaut" (or "röck döts").
The Japanese writing system has unusually complex digraphia. William C. Hannas distinguishes two digraphic forms of Japanese: "true digraphia" of occasionally using rōmaji Latin alphabet for a few loanwords like DVD, and of regularly using three scripts (technically, "trigraphia") for different functions. Japanese is written with kanji "Chinese character" Logogram used for both Sino-Japanese vocabulary as well as native vocabulary; hiragana used for native Japanese words without kanji or difficult kanji, and for grammatical endings; and katakana used for foreign borrowings or graphic emphasis.Hannas, William C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press, pp. 299-300. Nihon, for instance, the primary name of Japan, is normally written 日本 (literally, "sun's origin") in kanji – but is occasionally written にほん in hiragana, ニホン in katakana, or Nihon in rōmaji ("romanization"). Japanese users have a certain amount of flexibility in choosing between scripts, and their choices can have social meaning. Another example is the Malay language, which most often uses the Latin alphabet, while in certain geographic areas (Kelantan state of Malaysia, Brunei) it is also written with an adapted Arabic alphabet called Jawi script. Adaptations of the Arabic script are also widely used across the Malay Archipelago since the introduction of Islam. In Java, Javanese people people, which were predominantly ruled by Hindu and Buddhism kingdoms, have their own writing system, called Javanese script. When the Islamic power took place, a modified Arabic writing system (called Pegon script) was introduced, along with the massive introduction of the Latin alphabet by western colonialists. This results in the use of three writing systems to write modern Javanese, either based on a particular context (religious, cultural or normal), or sometimes also written simultaneously. This phenomenon also occurred in some other cultures in Indonesia.
An element of synchronic digraphia is present in many languages not using the Latin script, in particular in text messages and when typing on a computer which does not have the facility to represent the usual script for that language. In such cases, Latin script is often used, although systems of transcription are often not standardised.
Digraphia is controversial in modern Written Chinese. The ongoing debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters concerns "diglyphia" or "pluricentricity" rather than digraphia. Chinese digraphia involves the use of both Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin romanization. Pinyin is officially approved for a few special uses, such as annotating characters for learners of Chinese and transcribing Chinese names.Xieyan Hincha (2004). Two Steps Toward Digraphia in China. Sino-Platonic Papers 134. Nevertheless, Pinyin continues to be adopted for other functions, such as computers, education, library catalogs, and merchandise labels.DeFrancis (1984), p. 64. Among Chinese input methods for computers, Pinyin is the most popular phonetic method. Zhou Youguang predicts, "Digraphia is perhaps the key for Chinese to enter the age of Information processing." Many writers, both from China (e.g., Mao Dun and Zhou Youguang) and from abroad (e.g., John DeFrancis, Victor H. Mair, J. Marshall Unger, and William HannasHannas, William C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press.) have argued for digraphia to be implemented as a Chinese language standard. These digraphic reformers call for a generalized use of Pinyin orthography along with Chinese characters. Yat-Shing Cheung differentiates three Chinese digraphic situations. (1) Both the High and the Low forms derive from the same script system: traditional and simplified characters. (2) Both forms derive from the same system but the Low form borrows foreign elements: Putonghua and Fangyan. (3) The High and the Low forms derive from two different script systems: Chinese characters and pinyin.Cheung, Yat-Shing (1992). "The form and meaning of digraphia: the case of Chinese". In K. Bolton and H. Kwok. Sociolinguistics Today: International Perspectives. 210-215. Routledge.
Other examples of synchronic digraphia:
There are many examples of languages that used to be written in a script, which was replaced later. Examples are Romanian (which originally used Cyrillic and changed to Latin alphabet) in the 1860s; Vietnamese (which switched from a form of Chinese writing called Chữ Nôm to the Latin alphabet); Turkish language, Swahili language, Somali language, and (partially) Malay language, which all switched from Arabic script to the Latin alphabet, and many countries of the former Soviet Union, which abandoned the Cyrillic script after the dissolution of the USSR such as Moldova, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan which all switched from Cyrillic to Latin. As old literature in the earlier scripts remains, there is typically some continuing overlap in use, by scholars studying earlier texts, reprinting of earlier materials for contemporary readers and other limited uses.DeFrancis (1984), p. 60.
The Azerbaijani language provides an extreme example of diachronic digraphia; it has historically been written in Old Turkic, Arabic, Latin, Cyrillic, and again Latin alphabets.Hatcher, Lynley. 2008. Script change in Azerbaijan: acts of identity. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:105–116.
Other examples of diachronic digraphia:
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