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Asia-Pacific Language Variation: Online-First Articles

Depending on gender

The role of Gurindji women in contact-induced language change

ORCID logo | University of Queensland
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University | Australian National University
Sociolinguists have grappled with how speakers of different genders use linguistic variables differentially to constitute their identities. Two seemingly-conflicting generalisations have emerged, referred to as the gender paradox. Women at once maintain standard forms which are overtly-discussed and positively-evaluated; yet lead change in non-standard forms which are below the level of consciousness. These trends are relatively robust in cases of language-internal change in Western societies but less so in non-Western societies and situations of language contact. This paper examines the role of gender in a north Australian Indigenous community where there is a shift underway from Gurindji to Kriol. The dataset consists of 185 variables used by 78 speakers across three generations. Here we examine the results of the application of the BayesVarbrul to the dataset which suggest that that women tend to be more conservative than men in retaining Gurindji variants, despite a more general shift to Kriol.
Keywords: gender paradox, Gurindji Kriol, language contact, BayesVarbrul, language variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Gender as a driver in contact-induced language change
  • 3.The language ecology of Kalkaringi
  • 4.Gender as a driver of change among Gurindji people
    • 4.1Introducing BayesVarbrul as a new analytic method
    • 4.2Summary of Hua (2022) results
    • 4.3Discussion of gender results
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (95)
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