Diglossia in  Arabic language

As we all know, Ferguson has written about diglossia in Arabic language and divided the language into two levels: first, the H (high) prestige and second the L (low) prestige. The first one is used in schools and universities while the other on the street and among friends.

My name is Louai, I am from Syria, and my group and I decided to create this page especially to talk about my experience with diglossia in Arabic.

From my own experience,, I can tell that there is a third level that Ferguson didn’t mention in his researches, and I am going to call it the “Higher Level” (HL).

This level was used to write “old poetry” and “old books” and by old I mean what has been written since 320 B.C. This HL is a language that nobody uses nowadays, except the professionals in Arabic language or the religionists, especially the ones who studied or study the Holly Book (Al Quraan) which was written in such a difficult way that even highly educated people cannot understand most of the words.

Children in Arabic society always start learning the L prestige level as it is easy and common among the social groups. However, in schools, the H level is the official one. The HL is also presented in schools as a subject as a way to keep students in touch with this level, but not too deeply, in order to avoid any difficulties or problems.

The most interesting thing in our new level is that as only a few people can understand it well, any foreign words or expressions are kept away from it. And, for this reason, the beauty of this level is maintained through history.

Here are some examples of words in the three levels:

Higher Level	High level	Low level	Translation
Al kassura	Laith	Assad	Lion
AL Izar	Hossam	Saif	Sword

You will never be able to see anybody calling the Lion in its Higher Level during a common conversation, and this is due to the fact that each person knows what level to use while in different contexts.

From all of this we can conclude that Arabic is a flexible language once it could adapt to modern changes and as well keep the originality and the heritage among its words through its history.