Diglossia in China: Past and Present

Abstract

This article discusses the state of Chinese diglossia throughout history. It describes its emergence, its rise and fall, shows its development, and the process of its dissolution. The article further examines the present state of the modern Chinese language and regional diglossic situations. In the past, Chinese diglossia consisted of various elements: There was the unchallenged H-position of Classical Written Chinese as opposed to the Vernacular Written Chinese, which occupied the L-position on the written level. At the same time, there were spoken regional varieties of Chinese that were regarded as L-varieties as well. Since the 1920s, during the course of China’s modernization, the Vernacular Written language replaced Classical Chinese as the H-variant and came into use by all the speakers of those regional varieties. Thus, its position shifted from L to H with regard to the spoken varieties. This development shows that the former kind of diglossia came to its dissolution, while a new diglossic situation was created through the shift of the Vernacular Written Chinese from L to H. It can be concluded that there are different kinds of diglossic situations that demonstrate different development in different settings. In some languages diglossia can be multi-layered, and it is also possible for several L-varieties to coexist.