The village where men and women learn different languages They say men are from Mars and women are from Venus – and never has that been more true than in the village of ubang in southern Nigeria, where males speak one language and women speak another.

In a fascinating tradition, the ubang people use different words depending on their gender.

Children in the community pick up the ‘female’ language first, because they are predominantly raised by women throughout childhood. However, by the age of 10, boys are expected to adopt the ‘male’ tongue, which locals believe to be a sign of maturity.

In ubang in southern Nigeria, males speak one language and women speak another, though both are discouraged at the village school (stock image)

A BBC documentary investigated the unusual dialects and interviewed anthropologist Chi Chi
undie , who has studied the community.

She said: ‘There are a lot of words that men and women share in common, then there are others which are totally different depending on your sex. They don’t sound alike, they don’t have the same letters, they are completely different words.’

Women use the word ‘ okawae’ for dog, whereas men say ‘abu’. The Ubang word for ‘clothing’? Women call it ‘ariga’, while for men, it’s ‘nki’. The term ‘kitchi’ is the male word for tree, but females describe it as an ‘okweng’. And water is ‘bamuie’ for males and ‘ amu’ for females.