Literary language

Literary language is the form (register) of a language used when writing in a formal, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking in such a tone, it is also known as formal language. It may be the standardized variety of a language. It can sometimes differ noticeably from the various spoken lects, but the difference between literary and non-literary forms is greater in some languages than in others. If there is a strong divergence between a written form and the spoken vernacular, the language is said to exhibit diglossia.

The understanding of the term differs from one linguistic tradition to another and is dependent on the terminological conventions adopted.