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The Japanese language has some words and some grammatical constructions that are associated with men or boys, while others are associated with women or girls. Such differences are sometimes called "gendered language." In Japanese, speech patterns associated with women are referred to as ''onna kotoba'' (女言葉, "women's words, or words of woman") or ''joseigo'' (女性語, "women's language"). In general, the words and speech patterns associated with men are seen as rough, vulgar, or abrupt, while those associated with women are considered more polite, more deferential, or "softer". Some linguists consider the rough/soft continuum more accurate than the male/female continuum. For example, Eleanor Harz Jorden in ''Japanese: The Spoken Language'' refers to the styles as blunt/gentle, rather than male/female. There are no gender differences in written Japanese (except in quoted speech), and almost no differences in polite speech (''teineigo''), since males take on "softer" speech, except for the fact that women may be more likely to use polite speech in the first place. ==Traditional characteristics of women's speech== The word ''onnarashii'' (女らしい), which is usually translated as "ladylike" or "feminine," refers to the behaviour expected of a typical Japanese woman. As well as behaving in particular ways, being ''onnarashii'' means conforming to particular styles of speech. Some of the features of women’s speech include speaking in a higher register, using more polite forms and using polite speech or honorifics in more situations, and referring to themselves and those they address more formally. Some linguistic features commonly associated with women include omission of the copula ''da'', the use of personal pronouns such as ''watashi'' or ''atashi'' among others, use of feminine sentence-final particles such as ''wa'', ''na no'', ''kashira'', and ''mashoo'', and the more frequent use of the honorific prefixes ''o'' and ''go''.〔 Actual language used by Japanese-speaking women differs from these ideals. Such ''onnarashii'' speech is a norm that institutions such as education and media encourage women to adopt. Similarly, these forms may be prescribed for women learners by Japanese textbooks and other materials. There are, however, various deviations from these norms in conversation.〔 Although Japanese women may not follow the gender norm in speech, some linguistic studies indicate that Japanese women tend to use more honorific language than men do, which reinforces the idea of ''onnarashii'' and traditional gender roles. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gender differences in spoken Japanese」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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