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Welsh Diglossia (Welsh: ddeuglosia cymraeg) is a phenomenon occurring in Wales where two different forms of the Welsh language coincide in Welsh Society and are used in different societal domains. Historically, Welsh has lacked any prestige in official domains due to the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, however, since the Welsh Language Act 1993 Welsh is now an official language and used in official domains. Bilingual Diglossia also occurs in Wales between Welsh and English as separate languages in Fishman's description of Bilingualism and Diglossia.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Welsh was predominantly spoken in homes, workplaces, and places of worship There was no official use of Welsh yet and many were still monolingual in Welsh while English was becoming the language used in official domains. A Bilingual Wales as we see today was yet to emerge and being bilingual was the exception.

Linguistically, Charles A. Ferguson defined diglossia as
 * 'a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation.'

Following his 1959 article, Ferguson describes diglossia as having certain features that allow a country to have diglossia akin to Welsh.

Differences in diglossic languages or dialects can vary in different linguistic areas such as lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological levels of language.

Bilingual Diglossia
Bilingual diglossia by Joshua A. Fishman refers to the same concept as Diglossia but where High is a different language to Low form. According to Fishman, speech communities can comprise different relationships of Diglossia and Bilingualism (see table below ):

Welsh Diglossic features
Diglossic features can be seen in Welsh. They also occur in different social domains depending on which Welsh register is used. See below:.

Function
The function of a High or Low form of Welsh within Welsh society is where it is considered suitable to use either form in certain social domains. High forms of Welsh are used within official, religious, and educational domains, in comparison to Low forms of Welsh used amongst families and small communities. According to Ferguson, it is important to know which form is correct to use in certain domains as it shows a person is not familiar with a language that has diglossia.

Prestige
In most diglossic situations, the High (H) form is considered superior to the Low (L) form. In some situations, the L form is considered to not exist and only the H form is the 'real' language. In a bilingual diglossic context, English became the H form while the Welsh language suffered oppression throughout history, it became recognised that Welsh was not the language of the upper classes. Alternatively, the H form has been seen as more beautiful. In Literature, H Welsh is used. It could be seen as being more beautiful and scholarly compared to the lower forms of Welsh.

Literary Heritage
Most literature in languages is written in its H form as it is seen as more prestigious, held in higher esteem in the community, and considered more beautiful. This is true with Welsh, particularly older Welsh literature. The Eisteddfod sent a literary revival through Wales in the late 19th Century and allowed many Welsh people to sing, recite, and write in their mother tongue. . James Fife in 1986, wrote of several different varieties of Welsh used in literature:
 * Classical Welsh
 * The standard of Welsh is based on the Welsh from a period between Middle and Modern Welsh
 * Living Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg Byw)
 * This register is used in modern times to encourage literature to be written with less formality and to present more spoken Welsh.

Acquisition
Parents almost always use the L form of a language with their children. The L form of Welsh is passed on to children and is seen as a natural way of learning their mother tongue. The H form of Welsh is usually acquired once a child enters education and is exposed to literature and other sources of Welsh in its H form. The H form of Welsh is taught by learning the grammar rules of Welsh whereas the L form learned at home is usually acquired without any metalinguistic awareness of grammar rules. English has in some ways always been viewed as higher in Prestige than Welsh. The Victorian Welsh Not in schools was used to discourage the use of Welsh in the classroom despite it being the first language of many children. This affected the use of Welsh and discouraged its use in schools and communities.

Standardisation
Standardisation usually happens to the H form as it is seen as more prestigious thus needing the resources for it to be standard throughout its speakers. This is done via the creation of dictionaries, education, standard grammar, and pronunciation. In the case of Welsh, the H form is the standardised form that is taught in schools. William Salesbury lead the movement of having the Bible translated into Welsh along with other books of prayers in 1563 which aided the creation of a standardised Welsh centuries before dictionaries and education took a prominent position in the standardisation of Welsh.

Stability
Stability is needed for a diglossic situation to persevere. However, there is usually more stability in the H form particularly if it has been standardised. This means that the H form tends to be more stable than the L form in a community. In the case of Welsh alongside English, Welsh was once considered more unstable due to the oppressive nature against Welsh over history with Henry VIII's Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, the Treachery of the Blue Books, the Industrial revolution in Wales and the Welsh Not used in schools during the Victorian Era. The H form is more stable due to standardisation and better resources to ensure Welsh thrives. The 1891 United Kingdom cesus was the first to record official language statistics and provided evidence that Wales was becoming bilingual It allowed 13 counties in Wales to decide to answer the census in either Welsh or English and an additional question about which language they spoke: English, Welsh, or Both was asked. This was the beginning of Welsh Linguistic data being collected in Wales and recording the stability of Welsh alongside English.

Grammar
According to Ferguson 1959, grammar defines the most differences between H and L forms. It is noticeable that Welsh has many differences between the H and L form. In most cases, the L form takes on simpler grammar structures, easier pronunciations of words, and contractions. Mutations in Welsh grammar are affected by diglossia. Variations in mutations occur between Spoken Welsh and Formal Welsh with softer mutations usually taking the place of other mutations such as Nasal mutations. For example, ‘my cat’ fy nghath [i] in formal Welsh and cath fi in Spoken Welsh. Some examples of differences between H and L Welsh:

Lexicon and Phonology
Ferguson 1959, states that Lexicon and phonology are separate in Diglossia but in the case of Welsh, they are grouped together here as some features in the lexicon affect the phonology of Welsh. Generally in a diglossic situation, vocabulary is shared between both H and L forms. Some cases allow for more vocabulary to be accessible in the H form as it is used in various situations which have created jargon that are not discussed in L forms. In Welsh, vocabulary is shared between both forms. Between English and Welsh, many words have been borrowed from English into Welsh. In this situation, as English become the language spoken the most in Wales, the immersion of English words became apparent. The use of English and Welsh simultaneously has also affected the way certain words are pronounced such as lengthening certain vowels and intervocalic consonants.

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