Language and Gender Cross-Culturally

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

2. 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

3. Malagasy (Madagascar) • Speech norms: indirectness in speech • Articulated in public: Kabary ceremony • Through use of proverbs, allusions and innuendo • Kabary speech and male activities

4. Women and Exclusion • Encourage to violate norms • Women’s style of speech; secondary • Indirect speech = public = male = prestige • Direct speech= domestic = female = secondary

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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”

10. 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

11. Kúrux (Northern India) • 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-ambar-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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Discussion Question • In what ways are the relationship between language and gender cross-culturally similar or different to the relationship between language and race?