The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

is perceived as appropriate for certain functions” (Trask 2000: 92). These varieties are
normally divided into High and Low registers, each with a well-defined remit of usage. It
was proposed initially by Ferguson (1959) in relation to registers of a single language
(„classic diglossia‟), adopted subsequently by many scholars, and then later expanded by
Fishman (1967) to include two or more distinct languages („extended diglossia‟, or rather,
„diglossia with bilingualism‟). Within such a schema, written Latin was perceived therefore
as “[a] literary language, in the strict sense of the term, [a] conventional medium for the
expression of literature [...] it is artificial; it is a conscious selection from the whole resources
of the language, based (normally) on the usage of one region and one class” (Vlasto 1986:
344). In this way, the artificial and codified written language was distinct from the day-to-
day spoken language, which was subject to diachronic, diatopic and sociological change and
variation.
Diglossia is often posited as a useful term for the period when Medieval Latin existed
alongside the various vernacular languages in Europe, and in this situation it functions well.
However, diglossia also poses various methodological problems, especially when dealing
with situations of classic diglossia. First, most speakers will employ various registers of
language on complex scales of sociolinguistic register, depending on their situation.
Linguistic situations are therefore often too complicated to explain away with a strict
dichotomy of High and Low usage. Second, the understanding of High and Low registers of
language often depends on a speaker‟s perception of these registers. Therefore, a High
register for one speaker may not necessarily be a High register for another. Third, although
diglossia functions as a potential model for language use, it cannot help to explain its
diachronic development. For example: how close were spoken and written Latin in the
Classical period? To what extent could a non-educated native Latin speaker contemporary
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