Winter 2002
Directed Reading with Professor Amado Padilla:
Second Language Acquisition

Diglossia and Paraguay

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Section 2.3 – Diglossia and Bilingualism – from Romaine

Romaine, Suzanne (1995). Bilingualism (2nd Edition), pp.30-38. Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA.
   
This book by Romaine covers several areas of bilingualism research. It is an excellent resource for anyone doing research in the language area. This particular section defines and gives example of diglossia, a sociolinguistic phenomenon where each language has a separate function in society. After the definitions, the author goes on to explain the difference between diglossia and bilingualism in that diglossia is a societal arrangement. Paraguay’s linguistic situation between Spanish and Guaraní is specifically mentioned in this section of the book.