Language and Gender Cross- Culturally Why is it important to discuss the differences and similarities of gender- related speech?

Cross-cultural analysis 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 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) 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) Man-Man Man-Woman Woman-WomanWoman-Man st sg. bar-d-an bar-d-an bar-e-n bar-d-an 1 st pl. bar-d-am bar-d-am bar-e-m bar-d-am 2 nd sg. bar-d-ayi bar-d-i bar-d-in bar-d-ay 2 nd pl. bar-d-ar bar-d-ar bar-d-ayii bar-d-ar 3 rd sg. bar-d-as bar-d-as bar-d-as bar-d-as 3 rd 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 “Gender- Preference” 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 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 cross- culturally similar or different to the relationship between language and race?