Language and Gender CrossCulturally
Why is it important to discuss the
differences and similarities of genderrelated speech?
Cross-cultural analysis
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Ideology of gender enacted in language:
Example: English
Gender specific ways of comm…
Universality of gender asymmetry
Highly valued speech and men
Three cross-cultural examples: Malagasy,
Javanese, Kuna
Malagasy (Madagascar)
• Speech norms: indirectness in speech
• Articulated in public: Kabary ceremony
• Through use of proverbs, allusions and
innuendo
• Kabary speech and male activities
Women and Exclusion
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Encourage to violate norms
Women’s style of speech; secondary
Indirect speech = public = male = prestige
Direct speech= domestic = female =
secondary
Javanese Language
• Importance of politeness for both sexes
• Status of addressee and speaker reflected in
speech
• Highly stratified
• Weak distinctions along gender lines
• Strong ideology of gender equality
• Differences of speech in public and private
Private and Public Spheres
(Javanese)
Private
• Women: mas or “older brother”
• Men: dkik or “younger sibling”
• Difference in seniority
Public
• Women: Less skillful
• Men: Greater art of polite speech
Kuna (Panama)
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Egalitarian society
economic, political. Labor
Complementary separate but equal
Private and public contexts: speech styles
Public: --equally accessible to both genders
--Generally the domain of men
• Public: ---Exclusive for women
What do these examples tell us about the
asymmetry of the cultural evaluation of the
sexes?
• Malagasy and Kuna: Egalitarian
• Javanese stratified
• Malagasy and Javanese: marked linguistic
behavior
• Kuna: no great differences
Communication and Sex
Differences
• Reflection of sex differences (Chukchee)
--dif… pronunciation by men and women
• Or carrier of social meanings (Japanese)
-- “uti no yatu” or “fellow of my home”
-- “uti no hito” or person of my home”
Gender Deixis
• the notion that some actual linguistic elements are
indexical of some fact about gender, maybe that of
the speaker or that of the addressee, or both.
• Men and women differ in verbal forms, etc
----native American language (South Eastern)
koasati
• Languages with “gender-exclusive” patterns
Kúrux (Northern India)
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Man-Man
Man-Woman Woman-Woman
Woman-Man
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st sg. bar-d-an
bar-d-an
bar-e-n
bar-d-an
1st pl. bar-d-am
bar-d-am
bar-e-m
bar-d-am
2nd sg. bar-d-ayi
bar-d-i
bar-d-in
bar-d-ay
2nd pl.
bar-d-ar
bar-d-ar
bar-d-ayii
bar-d-ar
3rd sg.
bar-d-as
bar-d-as
bar-d-as
bar-d-as
3rd pl.
bar-n-ar
bar-n-ar
bar-n-ayii
bar-n-ar
Chiquita (Bolivia)
• Nouns
• Identical for women
• Men’s speech: nouns divided into two
--nouns associated to supernatural beings:
refering or talking to men
--not used when talking to women
• reflects social conflicts
Languages with “GenderPreference” Patterns
• Gender exclusive: alternatives appropriate
to their gender
• Gender preference: language style a social
or cultural choice
• Japan: class, seniority, gender
• Men: less polite and more assertive
• Women: more polite and less assetive
Choice of words depending on
the context
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Less polite forms More polite forms
Stomach
hara
onaka
Water
mizu
ohiya
Delicious umai
oisii
Eat
kuu
taberu
Summary
• Women’s domestic sphere -- less value
• Cultures evaluate gender styles in a similar way
• Example: Malagasy, Javanese and Kuna
Languages
• Ways of evaluating lang and gender relationship
----Gender exclusive
---- and gender-preference patterns
Discussion Question
• In what ways are the relationship
between language and gender crossculturally similar or different to the
relationship between language and race?