also: おねえことば
feminine gay speech; effeminate male sociolect
A speech style associated with some gay men in Japan, characterized by feminine expressions, intonation, and vocabulary. Often used in media and entertainment. The term can be considered stereotypical or reductive by some.
See also: お姉 (おねえ)
When a TV personality speaks in feminine gay speech, the audience gets excited.
オネエ言葉は、語尾に「わ」や「かしら」を付けることが多い。
Feminine gay speech often adds sentence-ending particles like 'wa' or 'kashira'.
A term for an effeminate gay man or a flamboyant male entertainer; オネエ言葉 is the speech style associated with such individuals.
Most common spelling in modern usage, using katakana for オネエ and kanji for 言葉.
Hiragana variant; less common but still encountered.
Kanji spelling for おねえ; rarely used and may be confused with the literal meaning 'older sister language'.
From オネエ (a term for an effeminate gay man, derived from お姉さん 'older sister') + 言葉 'language, speech'. The exact origin is uncertain, but it emerged in modern Japanese to describe a recognizable sociolect.