Mirela
When you’re working in localization, you’re bound to deal with tricky languages. Diglossia is on a whole different level. It’s not just one language; it’s a split personality. People switch between a “high” variety (as in the polished, formal one you see in textbooks and official speeches) and a “low” variety (aka the everyday dialect they text their friends in.)
If you’re building a product for a diglossic market, the big question becomes: which version do you actually localize into?
Why you can’t hide behind one language
So you’re ready to launch in a diglossic region. Your customers might have different expectations. The high register feels correct, authoritative, and trustworthy. Governments use it, schools teach it, and official documents live in it. But nobody chats with their friends in it. The low register, on the other hand, is warm and authentic, but it’s definitely not useable in serious, formal instances.
Don’t view it as a translation problem because it’s more of an editorial choice about identity. If your product only speaks “high,” you risk sounding cold. And if it only speaks “low,” your brand risks sounding sloppy, maybe disrespectful. You have to decide where each voice belongs, and then build your system so it can handle both.
Where is diglossia most present in?
Some of the regions where diglossia occurs frequently include Arabic-speaking countries, Greece, Switzerland, Jamaica, India, and various regions in Spain and France with regional dialects alongside official state languages.
Across Africa and parts of Asia, it also frequently occurs where colonial languages serve as high varieties used in official capacities while indigenous dialects or creoles exist as low varieties in everyday use.
How to deal with diglossia
Let’s look at some ways you can tackle this linguistic phenomenon.
Match register to context
How do you decide? Think about the different parts of your product. Your terms of service? Definitely high. Your push notifications nudging someone to finish onboarding? Low works far better. Documentation? Probably high, unless you’re writing tips for beginners.
What you’re doing here is creating a map of contexts: which areas of your product demand formality and which friendliness. Without this map, your translators will debate endlessly or improvise inconsistently. With it, you have a playbook.
Use dual-variety approaches where needed
A challenge that is unique to diglossia is that content that looks perfectly polished in the high variety might not resonate with users in their daily lives, while using a purely low variety version for formal content could come off as unprofessional.
If your platform supports it, you could offer parallel content options or toggles between the high and low varieties so that your users can choose their preferred language form.
Collaborate with native speakers
We can’t stress enough the importance of partnering with local experts. You need linguistic expertise in both varieties, so make sure to include specialists familiar with the formal registers and those with fluency in the colloquial, everyday language. This will ensure cultural sensitivity across your content.
Establish clear style guides
A style guide is used to define the rules, preferences, and best practices that translators and content creators follow to maintain a cohesive voice and tone across both high (formal) and low (informal) language varieties. This includes grammar, terminology, tone, and cultural nuances specific to each variety.
Who is your target audience? You’ll also need to clearly describe the target audience segments for the high and low varieties. Who reads or hears the formal variety? Which users prefer the informal? Answering all of these questions helps translators adapt tone and style accordingly.
Test with real users
Since these language varieties serve different social purposes, only authentic user feedback can validate if your localization meets user expectations. You can follow all the rules and guidelines you want, but users will decide if the language feels relatable.
Run separate tests for formal content (like legal docs, educational material) and informal content (e.g., marketing, social media). This lets you see how well your language choices resonate with the intended audience for each content category.
Wrapping up
Diglossia is a fascinating linguistic reality, but when you actually have to consider it in your work, you have to learn to navigate between a home dialect and an often unfamiliar formal language. That’s why you need clear style guides and targeted user testing to move towards better engagement and comprehension. For localization professionals, the takeaway is clear: respecting and reflecting the diglossic nature of certain regions.