Gender Prejudices in Ekegusii Language: A Case of Proverbs/Wise Sayings

Abstract

The advent of the twentieth and the twenty first century has seen languages embrace gender neutrality consciously and these changes in languages have contributed to gender equality. In this regard, the power of languages cannot be ignored in shaping people’s social constructions and their roles in societies. Studies have indicated that languages have the power to create and enforce gender determinism and the marginalisation of the feminine gender. Currently, both English and French have embraced inclusivity, whereby there is a deliberate attempt to move away from the use of the masculine as the default form for nouns, to the use of gender-neutral words. This may not be the case for many other languages of the world. That is why this article investigated the use of prejudiced language in Ekegusii paying particular attention to proverbs or wise sayings. Specifically, the article investigated the gender inferences, the roles and the stereotypical constructions in the proverbs or the wise sayings. It also investigated the effect of these gender inferences on the users’ perceptions in constructing their identities as men or women. The Social Constructionism Theory guided the analysis while a descriptive field linguistic design was used. Judgemental sampling was then used to sample proverbs from the Ekegusii dictionary and thereafter analysed them to determine the gender inferences, the roles, and the perceived gender constructions. The findings revealed that the figurative language used in these proverbs had underlying gendered prejudiced language that perpetuates historical patriarchal hierarchy that denotes men as norm. Further, the gendered prejudiced language outlines roles that influence members of the society to conform to specific societal expectations in line with their gender therefore forming stereotypes. Proverbs or wise sayings mirror essentially, a culture of a given people. Their continued use indicates one’s prowess in a given language and it is deemed prestigious. Therefore, it is hoped that the findings herein will awaken the users on the gendered ideologies in some of the proverbs so that even as they use them, they may conform to the modern trends of gender-neutral language.