Girls will be boys, was: Re: ...y'know

On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, Raymond A. Brown wrote:

>
> PS - in SW London, this use of 'man' has become epicene among the younger
> generation; female students even use this mode of address when speaking
> among themselves.  Does this occur elsewhere?
>
Dutch teenager girls have for ages (that is, they already did it when I
was at college), called each other _jongen_, 'boy', usually with in a
long, exasperated sounding drawl...

In Southern Colloquial Charyan there's actually a comparable trend: young
Broyan girls, from ten to fourteen, often address each other as _adiki_,
'little brother', much to the amusement of Charyans from other parts.
Even more interesting is that boys from the same age group, one they
have become friends with a group of girls, also call the girls _adiki_.
They are themselves then called _yadiki_, 'little sister'...

Especially in Broi, the children of the lower classes often band together
in these small mixed groups, not really gangs, since they are quite
friendly amongst themselves and to outsiders (always excepting the
occasional pick-pocketing and begging and the frequent practical joking) :
the Southern Colloquial term is _haden'yal_, literally 'friendly group'.
They have between four and ten members; a group of ten is likely to split
within a year. Most often the members of a _haden'yal_ live at home, with
their parents, but occasionally a group finds a place to live for
themselves; in those cases that is often preparatory to a marriage between
core members of the group.

Note that there isn't any evidence for role switching in these groups
other than the swapping of 'brother' and 'sister'; indeed, that would be
difficult since there are no clearly separated gender roles in the ethnic
southern Charyan society.

On a phonological note: the terms _adiki_ and _yadiki_ when used in these
groups tend to have the second syllable pronounced in an elongated high
tone.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt