Men and women really do speak different languages

Men and women really do speak different languages in this village in Nigeria.

Ubang, is a rural community in Nigeria and it is extremely unique as both the men and the women speak a different language.

The fact that both the men and women have grown up together but still end up speaking different languages has left many people wondering exactly how this works, but it seems to work perfectly for the village of Ubang, and its residents.

The men and women have completely different words for many things. Women say ‘ariga’ for clothing, and men use ‘nki’. Another example is ‘okweng’, which is used by the women for tree. The men use a completely different word and say ‘kitchi’.

No one is quite sure exactly how many words are different between the two languages, but the two languages sound completely different when spoken.

“It’s almost like two different lexicons,” said anthropologist Chi Chi Undie, speaking to the BBC.

“There are a lot of words that men and women share in common, then there are others which are totally different depending on your sex. They don’t sound alike, they don’t have the same letters, they are completely different words.”

The men and women of the village can understand each other though as they grow up around their parents learning both languages. Once boys hit maturity at around the age of 10 they are expected to use the male language.

Chief Oliver Ibang said: “There is a stage the male will reach and he discovers he is not using his rightful language,”

“Nobody will tell him he should change to the male language. When he starts speaking the men’s language, you know the maturity is coming into him.”

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