My wife grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation....
Lakota language has a Male and Female _speaker vocabulary_ - a woman
will use a slightly different word for a thing than a man will.

This became somewhat humorous in the 1800s when a white man would
marry a Lakota woman, and learn the language from her... then talk to
her male relatives.
They'd all grin because he "spoke like a girl"

On Sun, Dec 23, 2018 at 8:23 PM Jeff Zeitlin <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Comment, please?
> ============================================================================
>
> The relationship between language and culture is deep, and exists on many
> levels. Social relationships can affect language and its use, occasionally
> in interesting ways.
>
> One such is the phenomenon of the 'avoidance language' or 'mother-in-law
> language'. While the formal definition is quite a bit narrower (and more
> rigorous) than I use here, it's not entirely inaccurate to describe the
> phenomenon as a language (or vocabulary within a language) that allows
> communication between social groups that may not otherwise be permitted to
> interact 'normally'. Some examples of this phenomenon - and possibly
> related ones:
>
> * Among certain tribal societies, most notably Australian aboriginals and
>   some North American tribes, it is forbidden for a person ('ego', in such
>   discussions) to talk to (or in some cases, even look at) ego's spouse's
>   parent of the opposite sex. In such cases, communication between ego and
>   the taboo person, may be done through such a language. (This is the
>   origin of the term 'mother-in-law language'.) Most examples of this type
>   of avoidance language have features such as reduced vocabulary and
>   circumlocutive phrasing (usually because of the reduced vocabulary).
>
> * In discussions of Japanese culture prior to extensive contact with the
>   West, it is often said (with accuracy unknown to me) that one would use
>   different vocabulary when speaking to someone of higher social status, of
> equal social status, and of lower social status - and that similar
>   differences of vocabulary applied when men and women spoke to each other.
> The social-status difference also appeared in Robert A. Heinlein's novel
>   _Farnham's Freehold_.
>
> * A less-extreme example of a similar phenomenon can be seen in
>   hierarchical business/government environments, where the way an idea is
>   expressed changes depending on who is the speaker and who the listener -
>   for example, when something must be done and can only be done by one
>   person, a hierarchical superior may simply say "John, frabulate the
>   potrzebie", whereas the subordinate will say "Mr Jones, it looks like the
> potrzebie needs to be frabulated, and you're the only one that can do it.
> Would it be possible to get it done soon?".
>
> * In the German medieval and renaissance periods, it has been suggested
>   that nobles never gave orders directly to their servants. Instead, they
>   would address others in the room, or even inanimate objects, and simply
>   describe what the servant was required to do, e.g., 'She will bring
>   brandy', 'He will bring the carriage to the door', 'She will escort the
>   guest to her (the guest's) room', and so on. (It has been suggested that
>   this is more of a case of simply never addressing the servant directly,
>   not even to look at, rather than specifically addressing others (or
>   inanimate objects) with the orders for the servant). Similarly, in some
>   literary portrayals set in preindustrial (or early industrial) England,
>   the master of the house never addresses most servants directly, even if
>   the servant in question is in the same room; rather, the order is
>   directed to the majordomo, butler, or valet, who then directs the
>   appropriate servant.
>
> Another way that social relationships can affect language is in the
> phenomenon of "code-switching". This term is used, perhaps not entirely
> properly, in at least three different ways:
>
> * Most commonly, it is when two people are speaking together, where both
>   are bilingual in the same two languages, and words or phrases from one
>   language are injected into the middle of phrases, sentences, or
>   paragraphs in the other. Several reasons have been given for this,
>   including (but not necessarily limited to) the lack of a good word of
>   phrase in the "main" language to express a concept that exists and has
>   the phrase or word in the other language, the use of clichés, to signal
>   membership in an 'in group', or merely as a show of 'prestige' knowledge.
>
> * The phrase has also been used to describe the situation where two people
>   are both knowlegeable in the same pair of languages, but each is more
>   fluent in one of them - not the one that the other is fluent in - and
>   uses that language to talk to the other. This was at one time (and may
>   still be today) seen in immigrant households or communities in the United
> States, where the older generation speak the language of the 'old
>   country', but the young speak English.
>
> * It also appears to be used to describe the situation where the same
>   person may use different dialects, languages, or speech patterns in
>   different contexts:
>
>   * For example, the pastor of a church in a poor neighborhood of an
>     inner-city will tend to use the same dialect or speech patterns as his
>     congregants when speaking to them - but if he goes to speak on behalf
>     of his congregants and their community needs to a city councillor/
>     alderman/etc. who uses a "more proper" form of the language and sees
>     the congregants' dialect as 'less educated/literate', the pastor will
>     conform to that 'proper' usage.
>
>   * An immigrant who works in an environment where the expectation is
>     that everyone will be conversant in the local dominant or official
>     language will use that language in the work environment, but may speak
>     to a spouse in the language of their country-of-origin.
>
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>
> --
> Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
> Freelance Traveller
>     The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
> xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
> http://www.freelancetraveller.com
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