Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language. A modern example is the
Serbo-Croatian language, which is written in either the
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet or
Gaj's Latin alphabet. Although most speakers can read and write both scripts, Catholic
Croats and Muslim
Bosniaks generally use Latin, while Orthodox
Serbs and
Montenegrins generally use Cyrillic. However, older indigenous scripts were used much earlier, most notably
Bosnian Cyrillic.
Inuktitut is also officially digraphic, using both Latin and
Inuktitut syllabics. In
Hindustani, the
Devanagari or
Urdu script generally follows the
Hindi and
Urdu standards and the speaker's religious affiliation, though Urdu is sometimes written in Devanagari in India. Digraphia is limited, however, in that most people know only one script. Similarly, depending on which side of the
Punjab border a
Punjabi language speaker lives in,
India or
Pakistan, and religious affiliation, they will use the
Gurmukhi or
Shahmukhi script respectively. The former shares similarities with Devanagari and the latter is essentially a derivative of the Urdu writing script (Perso-Arabic). The
Arvanitic dialect of
Albanian is written in both the
Greek alphabet and Latin (Δασκαρίνα Πινότσ̈ι/Dhaskarina Pinoçi.) The
Japanese writing system has unusually complex digraphia. William C. Hannas distinguishes two digraphic forms of Japanese: "true digraphia" of occasionally using
rōmaji Latin alphabet for a few
loanwords like
DVD, and of regularly using three scripts (technically, "trigraphia") for different functions. Japanese is written with
kanji "Chinese character"
logographs used for both
Sino-Japanese vocabulary as well as native vocabulary;
hiragana used for native Japanese words without kanji or difficult kanji, and for grammatical endings; and
katakana used for foreign borrowings or graphic emphasis.
Nihon, for instance, the primary
name of Japan, is normally written 日本 (literally, "sun's origin") in
kanji – but is occasionally written にほん in
hiragana, ニホン in
katakana, or Nihon in
rōmaji ("romanization"). Japanese users have a certain amount of flexibility in choosing between scripts, and their choices can have social meaning. (modified Arabic script) and Latin alphabet for coffee packaging in Indonesia saying
100% Pure Coffee Powder. Another example is the
Malay language, which most often uses the
Latin alphabet, while in certain geographic areas (
Kelantan state of Malaysia,
Brunei) it is also written with an adapted Arabic alphabet called
Jawi. Adaptations of the Arabic script are also widely used across the
Malay Archipelago since the introduction of
Islam. In
Java,
Javanese people, which were predominantly ruled by
Hindu and
Buddhist kingdoms, have their own writing system, called
Hanacaraka. When the Islamic power took place, a modified Arabic writing system (called
Pegon) was introduced, along with the massive introduction of the Latin alphabet by western colonialists. This results in the use of three writing systems to write modern Javanese, either based on a particular context (religious, cultural or normal), or sometimes also written simultaneously. This phenomenon also occurred in some other cultures in
Indonesia. An element of synchronic digraphia is present in many languages not using the Latin script, in particular in text messages and when typing on a computer which does not have the facility to represent the usual script for that language. In such cases, Latin script is often used, although systems of transcription are often not standardised. Digraphia is controversial in modern
Written Chinese. The ongoing
debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters concerns "diglyphia" or "
pluricentricity" rather than digraphia. Chinese digraphia involves the use of both
Chinese characters and
Hanyu Pinyin romanization. Pinyin is officially approved for a few special uses, such as annotating characters for learners of Chinese and transcribing Chinese names. Nevertheless, Pinyin continues to be adopted for other functions, such as computers, education, library catalogs, and merchandise labels. Among
Chinese input methods for computers,
Pinyin is the most popular phonetic method.
Zhou Youguang predicts, "Digraphia is perhaps the key for Chinese to enter the age of Information processing." Many writers, both from China (e.g.,
Mao Dun and Zhou Youguang) and from abroad (e.g., John DeFrancis,
Victor H. Mair,
J. Marshall Unger, and William Hannas) have argued for digraphia to be implemented as a Chinese language standard. These digraphic reformers call for a generalized use of Pinyin orthography along with Chinese characters. Yat-Shing Cheung differentiates three Chinese digraphic situations. (1) Both the High and the Low forms derive from the same script system: traditional and simplified characters. (2) Both forms derive from the same system but the Low form borrows foreign elements:
Putonghua and
Fangyan. (3) The High and the Low forms derive from two different script systems: Chinese characters and pinyin. Other examples of synchronic digraphia: •
Balinese was written in the
Balinese script especially in
palm-leaf manuscripts for religious purposes. However, similar to Javanese, it is now largely written in Latin. Attempts to popularize the script through counseling and using it public spaces are supported by the local government. •
Javanese was written in the
Javanese script, but is now largely written in Latin. Attempts to reintroduce the Javanese script are gaining popularity. The use of
Pegon is limited to
pesantren, traditional Islamic boarding schools. •
Kashmiri is written in
Sharada, Devanagari,
Nastaliq, and Latin scripts. •
Kazakh is written in Arabic in
Xinjiang; in
Kazakhstan, it is written in
Cyrillic (though, in an instance of diachronic digraphia, it is slated to be replaced there by
Latin in 2025). •
Konkani is written in five scripts:
Devanagari,
Kannada, Latin,
Malayalam and
Perso-Arabic. •
Marathi was historically written simultaneously in
Balbodh Devanagari and
Modi script until the 1940s, after which Devanagari was preferred over Modi script due to a lack of printing infrastructure for the latter. •
Persian is today written in the
Perso-Arabic script in
Iran (where the language is called Farsi) and in
Afghanistan (where it is called
Dari), but in
Cyrillic in
Tajikistan (called
Tajik). •
Punjabi uses two different writing systems: the Brahmic
Gurmukhi script used in
Indian Punjab, and the Perso-Arabic
Shahmukhi used in
Pakistani Punjab. •
Sundanese now largely written in Latin, was written in both
the Sundanese script and the Javanese script. The reintroduction of the Sundanese script has gained popularity in recent years. •
Tashelhit was historically written in
Perso-Arabic and there are still people who use it. The
Latin script is mostly common among people, while the
Tifinagh script is the official script but not widely found outside of official uses. •
Uzbek was written in the Cyrillic script from the 1940s until 1993, when a Latin-based alphabet was made official in
Uzbekistan. While the Latin-based alphabet is widely used online, the Cyrillic alphabet is just as common on the Internet and is still the main script of most of the printed media, with most people able to read both much as in Serbia. ==Diachronic digraphia==