The article written by John Bradley focuses on a group of people who possess a unique language system. The Yanyuwa society not only have separate roles for the men and women in the community but the men and women also have separate dialects within the society. This wasn't the case at one point, when the children of both sexes were young they predominantly spoke the female form of the Yanyuwa language. The children when young are surrounded by their mothers and other women so they first learn to speak the mothers dialect. Once the young boys are initiated into the male society through a series of rituals they then use the male dialects to their best abilities without trying to infuse female dialects.
It was very interesting to follow the young boys transition form a child in to an all male society. If any of the young males in the group accidentally used the female dialect they were scrutinized by the males. In some circumstances the adult males would ask the young males if they had breast like women because they were sure speaking like them. On the other hand the women of the Yanyuwa community too would correct them if they ever heard them speak the women's dialect. As I was reading the article I felt bad for the young boys in the Yanyuwa community because they were not at fault in making the mistake of speaking the women dialect since they were exposed to it from birth . To the boys it would be like learning a foreign language and they were being made fun of by both older males and females to the point that it made the young males feel ashamed of themselves when it wasn't their fault.
It was very interesting to follow the young boys transition form a child in to an all male society. If any of the young males in the group accidentally used the female dialect they were scrutinized by the males. In some circumstances the adult males would ask the young males if they had breast like women because they were sure speaking like them. On the other hand the women of the Yanyuwa community too would correct them if they ever heard them speak the women's dialect. As I was reading the article I felt bad for the young boys in the Yanyuwa community because they were not at fault in making the mistake of speaking the women dialect since they were exposed to it from birth . To the boys it would be like learning a foreign language and they were being made fun of by both older males and females to the point that it made the young males feel ashamed of themselves when it wasn't their fault.
