ABSTRACT
Gender differentiation emerges as one of the most robust social variables in present-day sociolinguistics. Women are systematically reported to use highprestige standard variants more than men, so much so that this Sex/Prestige pattern is presented as a sociolinguistic universal in the English-speaking world (Hudson 1996: 195). Language change has been reported to follow a similar pattern, with women leading changes that come from above the level of social awareness.
