GENDER-BASED TABOOED AND EUPHEMISTIC PRACTICES : The Case of Ain-Sefra Speech Community Youngesters

Abstract: Despite the fact that every community has its unique customs and taboos, taboos are actually present in all languages and cultures. Certain taboos are; therefore, culturally particular and differ from one context and from one gender to another. The current study; in fact, endeavours to present a prominent understanding of the use of taboo words and their euphemistic counterparts. It gears to uncover the main areas and contexts where individuals; mainly young people living in the speech community of Ain-Sefra tend to include tabooed. It also investigates how gender can characterize the substitution of taboos and offensive connotations with euphemistic expressions; looking for a polite strategy to protect both speakers and interlocuters from the loss of face. To achieve this end, a mixed-method approach has been employed; including two main research instruments which are a questionnaire and an interview in order to collect an authentic data. The findings show that Ain-Sefra youngesters tend to use taboo words in the context of anger, annoyance, and when being more emotional. It seems also that taboos are usually uttered by males whereas females mostly seek to replace this taboo language with a more polite, pleasant, prestigious, and good language in order to reflect their femininity. Thus, gender can be considered as an effective parameter which displays that females are more conservative and tend largely to employ euphemistic substitutions in their daily conversation as a politeness strategy. Keywords: Taboo words – euphemism – gender – context – youngesters