Difference in language usage between the sexes

People often discuss the differences in English use between different nationalities, but often the biggest differences can be between the sexes. There are a whole catologue of words that I would use in conversations with other men, but rarely use to women. Many of these may be technical words, for the components of electronic goods that fascinate so many men and bore so many women. Also, I'm still yet to hear any man who can convincingly copy the sound of a womans voice. Given a few hours I could do a pretty good impression of most accents, but even after several years I would still not be close to copying a womans voice.

There are also a whole host of phrases that only women use "it's not what you said it's the way you said it" etc.

How important do you see gender difference?

In every language there are differences between the way men and women speak it. They are actually even greater in languages like Irish, French Italian and Japanese than they are in English. The famous Danish linguist, Otto Jespersen, once wrote that he thought that English was one of the most masculine sounding languages comparatively speaking and said that even English speaking women wrote in a style that was considered somewhat 'masculine' by women who spoke other languages.

There is no doubt that even in English, however, men and women still have a preference for certain words. For example, I've never heard women use the word "juggernaut." Until this year, I never heard a man use the word "gingerly", really. To me it has always sounded like a feminine word and every time I came across it in my reading it was always by a female author.

Brennus, I've never heard ANYBODY use the word "juggernaut", regardless of sex....

Re: Juggernaut - "An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path" (from Dictionary,com). This is originally Indian English coming from a Sanskrit word meaning "Lord of the universe."

Uriel, it's not a very commonly used word in English; that's for sure. However, I have heard people sometimes talk about the "Nazi juggernaut" of World War II or the "relentless Feminist juggernaut" of more recent times.

>>"relentless Feminist juggernaut"<<

Hmm... I wonder why that example was used...

Juggernauts - here in GB that word describes huge vehicles on the roads....massive commercial transportation lorries that seem to be great pals with each other as they all seem to travel in convoy and are a real pain in the ar$e when they use the outside or middle lane instead of the nearside lane where they belong and many of them carry Continental registration plates.....NL A E D B F I DK N P SF etc and an amazing number from Eastern Europe like PL H etc. What pi$$e$ us off is that they don't pay British road tax!

Men trying to copy the sound of a woman's voice? I've never tried it to be honest but I reckon I could get away with it as my voice tends to be a wee bit soft and gentle..but one problem.....I don't see the need or desire to do it. I'll leave it to the drag queens in the clubs and pubs...they get paid for it.

M. Damian,

Re: "Juggernauts - here in GB that word describes huge vehicles on the roads....massive commercial transportation lorries"

I noticed that in once source I looked at on the internet. I think they're called "Semi trucks" or "Semis" in the U.S. although if I was driving a car or smaller truck on the road I definitely would have to regard them as juggernauts.

I don't see any difference at all between the sexes in standard English. I speak identically with both men and women. It has never even occurred to me that there would be any reason to speak differently.

Any difference between the sexes is an invention of the culture or the individual, but not anything inherent in the language. Unlike some languages, English has virtually no sex-dependent constructions (rare exceptions include the use of pretty for women and handsome for men).

'I speak identically with both men and women. It has never even occurred to me that there would be any reason to speak differently.'

You're right that men don't go out of the way to speak to women differently but usage does vary. Take the somewhat restricted situation of two men in a pub.

'How the devil are you you old bugger?' used by one male companion in a pub to a passing acuaintance could only have been addressed to man.

Usage depends on shared experience. The two drinking companions may not fart in front of each other but they have no compunction in referring to it, or saying they needed to relieve themselves.

Women would ask to be excused; and a man drinking with a woman wouldn't normally specify where he was going when he says 'excuse me for a moment'.

Two men talking about women would use slightly (perhaps greatly) different words depending on whether a woman was present...

Chinese is probably one of those languages where there is least difference between masculine and feminine speech, I think, at least compared to Japanese!

I've always thought that women here in Hong Kong talk in a remarkably masculine way, more so than women in other countries. They swear a lot, shout at each other in public, and talk in a particularly grating way that would probably shock Japanese and Korean women! Two of my mum's friends called each other "idiots" in loud voices in the middle of a supermarket. Haha.

On being excused... Girls here in Hong Kong won't ask to be excused. I was tutoring a younger female student in English, and she "excused" herself by simply exclaiming "toilet!" and running off!

My dad is an English teacher and he's had a similar experience: One of HIS female students, and in a group lesson too, excused herself with "o huy o liu", which is the Cantonese equivalent of "I'm going to take a piss"!

Personally, I don't speak all that differently to boys and girls. I'm a boy but all of my friends happen to be girls... so that may be why *shrug*. Plus as I said, most girls here in Hong Kong tend to talk in a rather masculine way, so there's no need to polish up your speech when you talk to them ;)

Strange, my impression has always been that at least here in Michigan, young women and young men speak very differently (I don't think the difference is all that big between older speakers).
First of all, female speakers are much more likely to use upspeak (or high rising terminals or whatever you may call it) and that's probably true for the whole US and Canada.
I also think that female speakers usually have a more progressive NCVS (hearing one or two words is often enough to conclude that young woman is from around here, it takes much more (and a deliberate) effort for men).

Anyway, these are just my impressions, and not being a native speaker, I might be wrong.

I'm not that old, and I don't use upspeak.

Upspeak? You must mean "uptalk", right?

Whatever you want to call it. The practice of raising your tone at the end of a sentence, like a question.