The women's vocabulary hoax

[Donald Carroll]

Galey,

I heard this on TV the other day.  A comedian was using it in a standup
routine and was apparently quoting from some study.  He joked that
according to a "recent study" women spoke an average of 10,000 words a day
vs. men who spoke an average of 5,000 a day so by the end of the day men
had already used up all 5,000 of their words and the women still have 5,000
left.

In a similar vein, I once heard a supposed statistic claiming that the
average Briton spoke only 15 minutes a day.  Has anyone seen cross-cultural
comparisons of this sort.

Let us know if you find a source.

--Don

At 04:32 PM 5/9/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Today a student asked me if it was true that "women have 4000 more words
>than men".  Has anyone ever heard of this myth or seen it discussed in any
>scholarly or popular literature?
>
>Galey Modan
>
>
>