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In:Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins
Edited by Julie Abbou and Fabienne H. Baider
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 264] 2016
► pp. 353–380

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Harlots and whores but not lovers

Dressing down the pronoun for a female addressee in a Basque Old Testament

Published online: 16 December 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.13ech
Using a historical sociolinguistic theoretical approach (Conde-Silvestre and Hernandez-Campoy 2012, 1), this paper shows that a mid-19th century Catholic Old Testament utilizes the second-person singular pronoun for a female addressee (noka) to construct sexual and/or violent imagery, which contributed to noka’s loss and “semantic derogation” (Schulz 1975) over time. Focus is placed on noka for several reasons: (1) it is the only place in the Basque language (Euskera) where female gender is marked, as Euskera has no natural or grammatical gender; (2) my previous ethnographic and archival research suggests that the use of noka is considered disrespectful, “looked badly upon” and associated with “dangerous” women like witches; (3) my previous research on Catholic texts in particular shows that familiar pronouns are used sparingly, and almost always to condemn, castigate or cast out demons; (4) noka has historically been a key marker of solidarity, konfiantza (‘trust’) and ‘authentic’ Basque identity; but the negative cast upon noka, I suggest, discourages its use for such solidarity-building purposes.
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