What is "heteroglossia"

n. (context linguistics English) the coexistence of distinct variety within a single linguistic code

The term heteroglossia de the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single " language" (in Greek: hetero- "different" and glōssa "tongue, language"). In this way the term translates the Russian разноречие [raznorechie] (literally "different-speech-ness"), which was introduced by the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin in his 1934 paper Слово в романе [Slovo v romane], published in English as "Discourse in the Novel."

Bakhtin argues that the power of the novel originates in the coexistence of, and conflict between, different types of speech: the speech of characters, the speech of narrators, and even the speech of the author. He defines heteroglossia as "another's speech in another's language, serving to express authorial intentions but in a refracted way"(1934). Bakhtin identifies the direct narrative of the author, rather than dialogue between characters, as the primary location of this conflict.