Male vs. female speech

[Rory M Larson]

Hi Dave,

> As I've been perusing the Dorsey/Swanton Biloxi dictionary and texts,
I've been noticing many instances of male vs. female speech patterns.  The
one simple example I can think of at the moment is the optional declarative
particle na for a male speaker, and ni for a female speaker (and, if I
remember correctly, the question particle wo for male, wa for female).  It
seems to be most prominent in commands, and there appear to be different
command forms of verbs for male to male, male to female or child, female to
female, female to male, etc.

> I'm wondering if this is a common feature of all Siouan languages, or is
Taneks different in this respect.

I think it's pretty common.  I've also noticed that it seems
to be most prominent in commands, next most prominent in
statements or emphatics, less prominent in questions.

In OP, the male command particle is ga! and the female
command particle is a!; the 19th century emphatic,
previously statement, marker was ha for men and he
for women; now basically ho for men only in Omaha,
with the vocative also now changed to -ho for men
only, where in the 19th century it was -ha for both
sexes.

In Lakhota, I was taught that the strong male command
particle is yo! and the female command particle is ye!;
but if the command is more polite and diffident, then
the male form is ye! and the female form is na!  The
statement form for men is yelo', and for women is kis^to'.
For questions, both use he?, unless the man is standing
on his manly authority, in which case he asks huwo'?

I recall that the forms were substantially different
in Santee, but can't recall what they were.

In Iowa-Oto-Missouria, I believe the statement form
is ke for men and ki for women, but I don't recall
the full system.

This is an interesting sociolinguistic question.  I
wonder how widespread this sort of thing is outside
of Siouan?

Rory