Schizoglossia refers to linguistic insecurity or language complex about one's

native language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

. The term was coined by

Einar Haugen Einar Ingvald Haugen (; April 19, 1906 – June 20, 1994) was an American linguist and writer known for his influential work in American sociolinguistics and Norwegian-American studies, including Old Norse studies. Haugen was a professor at ...

in 1962. Linguistic insecurity is common in societies where there are two

language varieties In sociolinguistics, a variety, also known as a lect or an isolect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meech ...

and one is seen as "incorrect" and the other as a prestigious standard idiom. For example: Standard French versus

Haitian creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

or Standard

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

versus Afro-American English. In these cases, one variety is seen as "bad" and its speaker might want to "correct" some usages for some more prestigious alternatives. Those negative attitudes usually make the speakers ashamed of language usage that does not convey prestige, either openly or indirectly by using linguistic characteristics, such as pronunciation, of the other speech variety.

See also

References

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