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Gendered Language (was Re: Digest 2 Apr)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 3, 2001, 22:45
Muke Tever wrote:
> Well, some languages encode the gender of the speaker, IIRC, which is kind > of "odd" in itself.
Well, it's really just an extension of gender-related taboos and expectations. In English, the average female speaker has a larger color vocabulary than the average male speaker. I could imagine that being extended to an actual taboo on certain color-terms being used by males. A Japanese-style gender language is essentially that. Women can't use "boku", men can't use "atashi", for example.
> Actually, I already had in mind that for one of my future planned conlangs > (what starts out conculturally as an invented "children's language") that at > least two age statuses [...stata? statorides? states?] would be > morphologically involved.
That would be complicated. Would the child have to completely change the way he talks when he reaches a certain age? -- Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42