Women's Language ─ An Analysis of Style and Expression in Letters before 1800

By linguistic close-reading of more than a thousand letters from the 12th through the 18th centuries—written in Latin, Swedish, French, German, and English—this compilation analyzes the differences in language and communication between women and men. Armed with an exhaustive stylistic analysis, this volume attempts to answer the question Is there a special niche reserved for women’s language? As it pinpoints the variations in how women expressed themselves when addressing men or other women, this detailed investigation of style and expression comes to the conclusion that there is no evidence for a particular female language; however, this authoritative work is a joy to follow for anyone interested in language, linguistics, stylistic analysis, and gender.

Eva Haettner Aurelius is a professor in comparative literature at Lund University in Sweden. Hedda Gunneng is an associate professor in Medieval Latin at Gotland University in Sweden. Jon Helgason is an editor of the dictionary from the Swedish Academy and a researcher in comparative literature at Lund University.