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Subject:

Women's Languages

Question:

I am interested in the languages which are/were solely spoken by women in the world. Could you provide me with the names and/or sources where I can learn more about them?
Sincerely,
Behrooz M Bakhtiari

Reply:

>From: Behrooz M Bakhtiari
>I am interested in the languages which are/were solely spoken by women in the world. Could you provide me with the names and/or sources where I can learn more about them?
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Behrooz M Bakhtiari

**So far as I know, there are no natural human languages which are or were spoken only by women. If you (or other members of the panel) know of an example of such a phenomenon, I would be very interested.

There are a lot of media stories about an alleged ''women's language'' in China called ''Nu Shu,'' and a Google search will quickly take you to an abundance of articles about Nu Shu. However, you will quickly discover that Nu Shu is not a language but a writing system; there is evidence that it was used only by women, but it was a writing system for an existing variety of Chinese that was spoken by both women and men.

Suzette Haden Elgin
http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ozarque

Reply From:

Suzette Haden Elgin click here to access email

Date:

Nov-25-2005

Other Replies:

Re: Women's Languages Robert A Papen (Nov-23-2005)

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