Sexist Expressions in Nyakyusa

Keywords

Sexist Expressions
Nyakyusa Language

How to Cite

Saimon, M. (2020). Sexist Expressions in Nyakyusa. Issues in Language Studies, 9(1), 144–154. https://doi.org/10.33736/ils.2150.2020

Abstract

The way people use language determines and (or) reflects their experience in their social context; the use of everyday language becomes a lens through which people behave and see their world and at other time it is the social practices that influence certain choices of language used by community members. For that reason research on how languages affect women’s image in different speech communities is highly needed for the sake of saving women’s face. This brought to the attention the concept of language and gender in applied linguistics whose focus is on how language use and labelling is associated with gender differences. And those language forms that show gender bias are known as sexist expressions. Drawing on the above scenario, the present study explores sexist expressions in Nyakyusa language using data collected from four Nyakyusa speaking people as key informants through mobile phone interviews. Data were analysed thematically in which I generated themes from coded and categorised data. Findings show that Nyakyusa exhibits elements of sexism through five forms of sexist expressions namely referential gender, social gender, lexical gender, proverbs and idioms and agreements. The researcher calls for creation of awareness among Nyakyusa speech communities for reformation of sexist expressions.

https://doi.org/10.33736/ils.2150.2020

References

Alhassan, S. (2012). Language and gender. The construction and reproduction of gender in Dagbanli. (Unpublished PhD Thesis). University of Ghana.

Atanga, L., Ellece, S., Litosseliti, L., & Sunderland, J. (2012). Gender and language in Sub-Saharan African contexts: Issues and challenges. Gender and Language 6(1), 1-20.

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i1.1

Creswell, W., & Miller, W. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into Practice, 39(3), 124-130.

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2

Demberg, R. (2014). Linguistic sexism: A study of sexist language in a British online newspaper. (Unpublished PhD Thesis). Linnaeus University.

Eckert, P., & Mcconnell-Ginnet, S. (2003). Language and gender. New York: Cambridge Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791147

Gee, P., & Handford, M. (2013). The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. New York, NY: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203809068

Hellinger, M., & Bußmann, H. (2001). Gender across languages: The linguistic representation of women and men. Amsterdam, Netherlands: J. Benjamins.

https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.9

Hellinger, M, & Bußmann, H. (2003). The linguistic representation of women and men. Gender across languages, 2, 1-26.

https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.11.05hel

Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011). Qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Ifechelobi, C., & Ifechelobi, N. (2017). Gender discrimination: An analysis of the Language of Derogation'. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 22(12), 23-27.

https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-2203072729

Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Lei, X. (2006). Sexism in Language. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(1), 87-94.

Litosseliti, L., & Sunderland, J. (2002). From representation towards discursive practices: Gender in the foreign language. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.2.14sun

Lodico, G., Spaulding, T., & Voegtle, K. (2006). Methods in educational research : From Theory to Practice. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass.

Meyerhoff, M., & Holmes, M. (2003). The handbook of language and gender. Berlin: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Mills, S. (2008). Language and sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mmadike, I. (2014). The Igbo perception of womanhood: Evidence from sexist proverbs. Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(18), 98-104.

Ndimande-Hlongwa, N., & Rushubirwa, L. (2014). Gender inequality and language reflections in African indigenous languages: Comparative cases from Isizulu and Kiswahil. Alternation, 390-410.

Persohn, B. (2017). The verb in nyakyusa: A focus on tense, aspect, and modality. Berlin, Germany: Language Science Press.

Prewitt-Freilino, L., Caswell, T., & Laakso, K. (2012). The gendering of language: A comparison of gender equality in countries with gendered, natural gender, and genderless languages. Sex Roles, 66(3-4), 268-281.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0083-5

Throsby, K., & Alexander, F. (2008). Gender and interpersonal violence: Language, action and representation. New York: Springer.

https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230228429

UMWA. (2016). Media and elections in Uganda: A gender analysis of print media

Coverage of the 2016 General Elections. Uganda Media Women's association (UMWa)

Weatherall, A. (2002). Gender, language and discourse. New York: Routledge

Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal

1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.

2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.

3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.

4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.

5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.

6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.