GENDER AND AGE The linguistics forms used by women and me n contrast to differentdeg rees in all speech communities.

There are other ways too in which thelinguistics behavior of women and men differs. It is claimed women

aremore linguistically polite than men, for instance, and that women and menemphasize different speech function.Wome

n and men from the same speech communities use differentlinguist ics form. First, a brief comment on the meaning of

the meaning of theterms sex and gender in sociolinguistics. We have used the terms genderrather t

han sex becaus e sex has come to categorized distinguished bybiological characteristic,, while gender is more appropriate for distinguishingp

eople on basis of their sociocultural behavior, including speech. The co ncept of gender allows, howeve r, for describing masculine andf

eminine behavi or in terms of scales or conti nua rather tha n absolutecate gorize
GENDER AND AGE The linguistics forms used by women and men contrast to differentdegrees in all speech communities. There are other ways too in which thelinguistics behavior of women and men differs. It is claimed women aremore linguistically polite than men, for instance, and that women and menemphasize different speech function.Women and men from the same speech communities use differentlinguistics form. First, a brief comment on the meaning of the meaning of theterms sex and gender in sociolinguistics. We have used the terms genderrather than sex because sex has come to categorized distinguished bybiological characteristic,, while gender is more appropriate for distinguishingpeople on basis of their socio-cultural behavior, including speech. The concept of gender allows, however, for describing masculine andfeminine behavior in terms of scales or continua rather than absolutecategorize

GENDER AND AGE

The linguistics forms used by women and men contrast to differentdegrees in all speech communities. There are other ways too in which thelinguistics behavior of women and men differs. It is claimed women aremore linguistically polite than men, for instance, and that women and menemphasize different speech function.Women and men from the same speech communities use differentlinguistics form. First, a brief comment on the meaning of the meaning of theterms sex and gender in sociolinguistics. We have used the terms genderrather than sex because sex has come to categorized distinguished bybiological characteristic,, while gender is more appropriate for distinguishingpeople on basis of their socio-cultural behavior, including speech. The concept of gender allows, however, for describing masculine andfeminine behavior in terms of scales or continua rather than absolutecategorize. GENDER EXCLUSIVE SPEECH DIFFERENCESNON WESTERN COMMUNITIES There are communities where the language is shared by women andmen, but, particular linguistics features occurs only in the womens speechand mens speech. These features are usually small differences inpronunciation or word shape (morphology).In Montana, for instance, there are pronunciation differences in theGros Ventre American Indian tribe. Where the women say [kjatsa] forbread and the men say [d atsa]. In this community if a person uses the

wrong from their gender, the older members of the community considerthem bisexual.Word-shapes in other languages contrast because women and menuse different affixes. Example: In JapaneseWomens formMens form OtoosanoyajifatherOnakaharastomachOishiiumaidelicious TaberukuueatIn modern Japanese, these distinctions are more a matter of degrees of formality or politeness than gender; so the mens forms are restrictive tocasual context and consider macho and coarse, while the womens forms areuse by everyone in public context.Some languages signal the gender of the speaker in the pronounsystem. In Japanese, for instance there are number of words for I varyingprimarily in formality, but women are generally restrictive to the more formalvariants.Women and men do not speak in exactly the same way as each otherin any community. If there is a regular pattern of men from village Amarrying and bringing home to their village women from village B. Then, it islikely that the speech of women in the village A will be mark by manyfeatures of the village B dialect

Gender-preferential speech features:Social dialect researchExample:Keith was a 7-years old Canadian from Vancouver whose parents wereworking for six months in the city of Leeds in

Yorkshire, England. He hadbeen enrolled at the local school, and after his first day Keith came homevery confuse. Whats the teachers name? ask his father. She says she isMrs. Hall, said Keith, but when the boys call her Mizall she is still answerthem. And the girls sometimes call her Mrs. Hall and sometimes Mizall. Itsounds very funny.In Western communities where womens and men social roles overlap,the speech from the use also overlap. In other words, women and men donot use completely different forms. They use different quantities orfrequencies of the same forms. In Montreal, the France use by women andmen is distinguished by the frequencies with which the pronoun (l) inphrases such as il y a and il fait . Both women and men delete (l) but men doso more often than women.In all these example, women tend to use more of the standard formsthan men do, while men use more of the vernacular form than women do. InAustralia, interviews with people in Sydney reveal gender differentiatedpatterns of (h) dropping. GENDER AND SOCIAL CLASS The linguistic features which differ in the speech of women and men inWestern communities are usually features which also distinguish the speechof people from different social classes. So, how does gender interact withsocial class? Does the speech of women in one social class resemble that of women from different classes, or does it more closely resemble the speechof the men from their own social class? The answer to this question is quitecomplicated, and is different for different linguistic features. There are however, some general patterns which can be identified. In every socialclass men use more vernacular forms than women.In many speech communities, when women use more of a linguisticform than men, it is generally the standard form the overtly prestigiousform that women favor. When men use a form more often than women, itis usually a vernacular form, one which is not cited as the correct form. Thispattern has been found in Western speech communities all over the world. Ithas been described by Peter Trudgill, the sociolinguist collected the Norwichdata, as the single most consistent finding to emerge from sociolinguisticstudies over the past 20 years. This widespread pattern is also evident from a very young age. It wasfirst identified over 30 years ago in a study of American childrens speech ina semirural New England village, where it was found that the boy used more[in] and the girls more [i] forms. Boys used more vernacular forms such asconsonant cluster simplification: e.g. las [las] and tol [toul], rather thanstandard last

[last] and told [tould]. EXPLANATIONS OF WOMENS LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOUR Why cant a woman be more like a man?When this pattern first emerged, social dialectologist asked: why do womenuse more standard forms than men? at least four different explanationswere suggested. The first appeals to social class and it related status for anexplanation; the second refers to womens role in society, the third towomens status as subordinate group, and the fourth to the function of speech in expressing masculinity. AGE GRADED FEATURES OF SPEECH