Ubang is a town in Obudu Local Government Area in the southeastern part of Cross River State. It is said that men and women speak different languages. Though they share a lot of words in common, there are gender-specific words too.
While growing up the boys grow up speaking the ladies language, because they spend most of their childhood with their mothers. At a certain age, the boys realize they are using the wrong language and start to adjust to the right language. It is usually seen as a sign of maturity when the boys start speaking the male language and if the male child doesn’t switch language, he’s considered abnormal.
It is amazing that both the men and women are able to understand each other perfectly despite the language difference. This makes the people of Ubang very proud as they consider this as a sign of uniqueness.
There are several myths about this language difference between both genders, one of which is that God created Adam and Eve and they were people of Ubang. God planned on giving every ethnic group at least two languages each, but after creating two languages for the people of Ubang, he figured there won’t be enough languages for all the ethnic groups, so he stopped at Ubang. This is why Ubang has 2 different languages for both genders.
Example of some words difference
WORDS MALE FEMALE WATER BAMUIE AMU GOAT IBUE OBI DOG ABU AKWAKWE CUP NKO OGBALA
We hope that as more people leave for greener pastures that the language still survives.
Peoplesmind
