by Michael Bailey Michael Bailey is a junior in Political Science at The University of Illinois. Michael’s future plans include graduating, in the Fall of 2020. Michael wrote this blog post in 418 'Language and Minorities in Europe' in spring 2019. The concept of diglossia has existed since the beginning of language itself. There have been multiple instances of diglossia throughout the world. It can happen anywhere. The term was first coined in 1959 by sociolinguist Charles Ferguson. Even though his paper was written in 1959, a majority of his findings concerning diglossia still ring true. This blog will focus on further defining diglossia, and how it develops in various language communities. In order to first define diglossia, we must first define bilingualism, as the two terms refer to different concepts entirely. Bilingualism is an individual experience and is concerned with fluently speaking two languages. Diglossia is a community experience, and it forms when...