Contemporary Discriminatory Linguistic Expressions Against the Female Gender in the Igbo Language

The Igbo traditional society is patriarchal in nature with a prevalence of gender stereotypes. Men train their male children to grow up bold, strong, courageous, audacious and fearless while women on the other hand groom their female children to be soft-spoken, subservient and gentle. Both men and women have accepted their gender roles as a characterization which fate and destiny have bestowed on them, and are sensitized and indoctrinated in such a way that there are no conflicts between the two groups on the basis of their inherent traditional roles(cf. Ozumba, 2005). In the context of the Igbo traditional setting and within the confines of the gender stereotypes women are generally not viewed or perceived by their male counterparts as having the same status. This perception of women is often reflected in the social use of language to the extent that women are sometimes socially addressed and described with biased and discriminatory linguistic remarks and expressions. This paper descriptively examines, from semantic and pragmatic viewpoints, some discriminatory and biased Igbo linguistic expressions used by some men against women in contemporary Igbo society. The data for the study were collected mainly through oral interviews. The findings reveal that women are addressed and described with derogatory linguistic terms and imagery, portrayed as inferior to men. Based on the findings, the paper recommends a re-orientation of Igbo men from a young age, starting with parental discouragement of this trend in the home. Further studies on the general attitude towards women in contemporary Igbo society as linguistically expressed are suggested since such studies will constitute veritable sources of research information.