What does the title ‘diglossos’ mean?
The word “diglossos” from Greek means “speaking two languages” (di-, two + glossa, tongue, language). With “diglossos” Selwyn Milborrow wants to share stories through his poetry that will captivate, inspire and move people because they not only want to talk about their experiences; they want to expand on them.
The word “diglossia” means a situation in which two languages (or two varieties of the same language) are used under different conditions within a community, often by the same speakers. This coexistence of two forms of the same language in a speech community is central to Selwyn Milborrow’s poems in Afrikaans (in a variety of dialects) and English that aim to inspire and motivate his readers. Often, one form is the literary or prestige dialect, and the other is a common dialect spoken by most of the population.
The title “diglossos” is more than just a linguistic term. All of us enjoy learning new things and meeting like-minded souls, and Selwyn Milborrow wants his readers to experience the poems in this book as a literary water cooler.
- Libbo Publishers, South Africa
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