Avoidance speech

Avoidance speech is a group of sociolinguistic phenomena in which a special restricted speech style must be used in the presence of or in reference to certain relatives, or in certain situations. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Aboriginal and Austronesian languages as well as some North American languages, Highland East Cushitic languages and Southern Bantu languages. Chinese naming taboo prohibits speaking and writing syllables or characters that appear in the names of esteemed people, such as emperors, parents, and ancestors. Avoidance speech styles tend to have the same phonology and grammar as the standard language they are a part of. The lexicon, however, tends to be smaller than in normal speech since the styles are only used for limited communication.

Avoidance speech is a group of sociolinguistic phenomena in which a special restricted speech style must be used in the presence of or in reference to certain relatives, or in certain situations. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Aboriginal and Austronesian languages as well as some North American languages, Highland East Cushitic languages and Southern Bantu languages. Chinese naming taboo prohibits speaking and writing syllables or characters that appear in the names of esteemed people, such as emperors, parents, and ancestors. Avoidance speech styles tend to have the same phonology and grammar as the standard language they are a part of. The lexicon, however, tends to be smaller than in normal speech since the styles are only used for limited communication. ==Australia== ==Africa== A special system of avoidance vocabulary is traditionally used by married women speaking Highland East Cushitic languages in southwestern Ethiopia. In Kambaata and Sidamo, this system is called ballishsha, and includes physical and linguistic avoidance of parents-in-law. Women who practice ballishsha do not pronounce any words beginning with the same syllable as the name of their husband's mother or father. Instead, they may use paraphrase, synonyms or semantically similar words, antonyms, or borrowings from other languages. Ukuhlonipha is a traditional system of avoidance speech in Nguni Bantu languages of southern Africa including Zulu, Xhosa and Swazi, as well as Sotho. This special speech style and correlating respectful behaviors may be used in many contexts, but is most strongly associated with married women in respect to their father-in-law and other senior male relatives. Women who practice ukuhlonipha may not say the names of these men or any words with the same root as their names. They avoid the taboo words phonologically (substituting sounds) or lexically (replacing words with synonyms, etc.). The ukuhlonipha system also includes avoidance of the names of certain relatives by all speakers and physical avoidance of certain relatives. ==See also== Crips#Language Written and spoken avoidance practices in American gangs Bear § Etymology (widely agreed to involve avoidance) Noa-name: A word used instead of a taboo or dangerous word Australian Aboriginal sign languages Minced oath Euphemism Honorifics (linguistics) Pandanus language Damin: Australian ritual language Pequeninos: fictional race from the post-Ender's Game trilogy; the ambulatory males and females avoid most direct communication, and use separate language styles otherwise. Taboo against naming the dead ==Notes== ==References== Fandrych, Ingrid. "Between tradition and the requirements of modern life: Hlonipha in southern Bantu societies, with special reference to Lesotho." Journal of Language and Culture 3, no. 4 (2012): 67-73. Finlayson, Rosalie. "Hlonipha—the women's language of avoidance among the Xhosa." South African Journal of African Languages 2, no. 1 (1982): 35-60. Luthuli, Thobekile Patience. Assessing politeness, language and gender in hlonipha. PhD diss., 2007. Mous, Maarten. 2015. Laws of in-law-languages. Online Prabhakaran, Varijakshi. "Hlonipha in Dravidian Languages and Society?." Language Matters (1998): 117-131. Rudwick, Stephanie, and Magcino Shange. "Hlonipha and the rural Zulu woman." Agenda 23, no. 82 (2009): 66-75. Zungu, Phyllis. "Some aspects of hlonipha in Zulu society." Language Matters (1997): 171-181. ==External links== Lecture notes on Dyirbal illustrating mother-in-law language One of three "LanguageHat" blog posts on the topic

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1376260388 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.