Re: Caste Languages

> > Anyone know the name of the natural language which is pronounced
differently
> > based on gender?
> > Can't recall where I saw the info.
> > Men and women speak with significantly different pronunciation to the
point
> > where, to an outsider, the languages would appear to be dialects.
> > Sound familiar or did I dream it?
> Unless we have remarkably similar dreams, I believe that there is such a
> language. It is called Chukchi, and is spoken in Eastern Siberia. It was
> one of the many languages that appeared in a book that I borrowed in a
> library some 3 or 4 years ago, which consisted of samples and descriptions
> of some of the world's languages. It said that the consonant that was
> represented as "k" in writing, was pronounced "k" by men, and "ts" by
> women. The consonant cluster "rk" was pronounced "rk" by men, and "tsts"
> by women. The book gave no phonetic transcription more precise than this.
> I can't begin to fathom which phonological processes that lie behind such
> different realizations of the same phoneme. But there you have it.
> Unfortunately, I can't recall the title and author of the book exactly,
> but it's quite possible that it was Kenneth Katzner's "The languages of
> the world" that I read.
--
Arnt Richard Johansen

Yes! Even the book I saw it in. Thanks for the bringing it all flooding
back.
Not only that, I found the book.
Since, in my alter ego, I write Library Software, I can provide you with an
ISBN 0-415-11809-3 for my version from 1995.

Excerpt page 154
        "Chukchi is spoken in northeastermost Siberia, pricipally in the Chukchi
National District, whose capital is Anadyr. With only 12,000 speakers it is
nonetheless the most important member of the Paleo-Asiatic family of
languages."
        "The Chukchi alphabet, based on the Cyrillic ... A curious feature of the
language is that the letter k is pronounced k by men but ts by women, while
the combination rk is pronounced rk by men by tstsby women. Thus the Chukchi
word for 'walrus' is pronounced kyrky by men and tsytstsy by women."