There are casual studies done on the matter and the belief is, based on their experience, that men and women use the same amount of words (high end and casual language).

Whether or not the study is valid, in my opinion, I believe it depends on the setting. When I am with my peers, depending on the people, I speak very differently than if I were to right a paper, speak to professionals, authorities, or even have an in depth discussion on a topic like a philosophical debate. It also depends on the type of writing. I do believe that there are gender differences much like what George Stoica said.

I feel that men tend to be much more straight forward, void of what we may consider "emotion." This does not mean that a man is not emotional, they just communicate differently and may try to explain it by other means. A male fictional writer can write a wonderful novel full of drama, action, and romance. It is normally a very exciting form of writing and fast paced. They can also be meticulate and well thought out. This is when you get the depth of older writers and artists.

A woman on the other hand writes very fluffy and informal. Not that it can't be precise but it tends to hold more emotion than "logical" language. There is no point A to point B without what ifs, worries, or plot twists. If I were to look at a writer, female writers can also write very informative dramas and action. It's not just about romance. It's often about those small details like clues to a mystery to be solved.

There are also writers, male and female, that have found a balance between to natural and nurtured natures. There may be a more dominate way to speak than another. It can also be tagged to personality type. I tend to be around more men than I do women when I hold conversations with people. I find that I get too bored and fed up with a certain level of drama but that doesn't mean I don't deal with it either. I also like to have in depth conversations with people and when it is with a woman, I feel like they get me but when it is a man, I feel that I am both learning and teaching making the conversation last longer. 

The vocabulary in a language is very hard to determine in the end. Then again, this might be the woman in me looking at all the details, hahaha.

certainly females 

In my opinion, the development of a language in a male or a female is dependent on so many factors. Therefore, I think it is hard to pick who is 'better'. To begin with, a child learns the first words from home through parents and family, then the immediate surrounding, social ties, school, community etc. Depending on how intensely the child is nurtured by her/his surrounding and depending on how well they reciprocate, the language skills start to take shape. However, nowadays with the proliferation of the cyber age, children are heavily influenced by the language they see, hear and imbibe on the computer screen.

A Side-track: As a student, I have witnessed two kinds of teachers: one who encourage their students (male or female) by creating a conducive atmosphere in the class for developing cooperative language skills rather than competitive. The majority like such teachers who do not bring in words such as, 'good', 'better', 'best' to make distinction among students. Remember Robin Williams from the 'Dead Poets Society'. On the other hand, I have also witnessed, teachers who make biases. Teachers, who favour male or female students based on their performance (language skills included). 

female

A Biological Reason Why Girls Have Better Language Skills Than Boys that studied by Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa :

http://www.science20.com/news_releases/study_a_biological_reason_why_girls_have_better_language_skills_than_boys

Men   and   women   may   make   requests indifferent ways. People observed that women state  requests   and   men  issue   commands. The   form of  women’s  language  is  reputed to  be  more  polite   than   the   form  of   men's.

Dear Humberto, according to sociologist Pierre Boudieu, women of all social classes have better language skills and a better grasp of lexical matters than men. He discusses this issue in his Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. (London: Sage Publications, 1990). Bourdieu carried out lots of field research, including interviews, surveys, etc. I hope this helps you.

Best regards, Lilliana

The female

Dear Chloe, I was a bit shocked by your comment, especially because of the harsh, though probably unconscious, prejudice you manifest against women. My professional experience is quite the contrary among my peers, men and women. 

At my university, women submit and publish along men with the same quality, bearing in mind that both men and women accept the rules for submitting papers and articles to journals and reviews. But in formal discussion groups women tend to dominate in terms of number of women participants and in terms of actual written or dialogued participation. Women tend to dominate language more, as evinced in the quality of our writing. There is nothing "fluffy" here, but, evidently, well written prose is always an aid for a better understanding by the reader. Elegance, wit, cadence are very important for conveying meaning. Clumsy, unatractive prose is never rewarding for a reader. Men and women should pay attention to their prose. I have edited a few books for publication, and always it has been men who need help with their sloppy prose. Once published, all of these books have been praised and have not been found "feminine" or "fluffy" despite of my editorial intervention. I mean, I have not feminized the authors in doing sometimes thorough editorial work. That is because I am a woman and I am not "fluffy".

Women also tend to be more rigorous with their reference material, and are usually better in argument. In fact, more and more references are included not as support of an argument, but to be openly contested by the woman writer. In conference papers the same happens: women are more careful, even minutely so, than men. And they are more willing to start an argument or to follow one initiated by someone from the audience. Their visual material is more complete and challenging, and not just a photo of the same words she is reading from the paper. 

The fact that you perceive men as teachers depends on your own psychology, as is the fact that you are bored by women. This personal comment has more to do with your preferences in choosing friends than on the real capacity of women for intellectual pursuits. I wonder if your yourself would consider your usually lucid arguments in RG as "masculine", because I find you are never "fluffy", "emorional", "banal" or "boring"! Except here, were you unfairly, and on a very personal mode, belittle the intellectual capacity of women.

Women are not naturally "fluffy" or "emorional" as you know that this is a learned thing: and to be stupid or superficial is NOT in our nature. That is a prejudice women ourselves need to overcome. I Have seen women attacking a woman colleague in front of men because they want to be "one of the guys". It is not necessary to be "one of the guys "to do great work, as so many women authors in all subjects have come to understand. It is true that there are less publications by women authors than by  men. That is because of prejudice. I would advise you not to promote that prejudice. It does not help anyone, really.

It bears noting that it has been great intellectuals like Sara Ahmed, Teresa Brennan and Judith Buter (among many others) who have started a very strong wave of acceptance and discussion of "affect" (I guess that is what you mean by the word "emotion"), both as a field of serious study regarding "polity" and as a human element that has been unduly suppressed in intellectual pursuits, precisely by men. "Affect" is important in many ways, and not just a quip belonging to "hysterical women", as Freud used to call us.

You even accuse women of talking to much, weaving complex narratives, even "drama". What is missing from many works by men is detail and proof. Maybe what you see as unnecessary complexity is, precisely, detail and proof on which any argument must be based. "Drama" is, in fact, everywhere. Interestingly, you tend to write lengthy comments that could be described as complex, winding and extremely (and dramatically) personal. But I do not mind, because your comments are usually very well written and interesting. And you are a women who thrive in detail and pertinent anecdote. Exhaustiveness is neither capricious nor dramatic. It is, in fact, scientific.

Men, even mediocre men, get all the breaks. We women are already changing that. But we do not want a "break". We want fairness and justice in teaching positions and publishing opportunities, among many other instances where we are not able to compete because of prejudice.

I confess I read your comment with a little shame, precisely because I have valued many other of your comments here in RG. Maybe it is time you personally evaluate your own attitudes towards women, especially because your arguments are typical of a time when women themselves used to attack the feminists who were fighting for better opportunities for women across all of society. That time is long gone. Now is the time to read women on our merits, not on your prejudices.

I am very sorry to say this, Choe. Very sorry. But I felt it was necessary to say it.

Warm regards, Lilliana

Dear Mr. Lucero,

In terms of communication, from my experience, students of both gender can be equally articulate depending on how much training they have been given, and I agree that culture plays a big part too.

Anyway, in terms of talking habit, I may not sound scientific here, but when the term "chatty box" is used, I can't help thinking of a woman. And a joke about women's talking habit like that in the following graphic is so common. 

Sincerely,

Cameen

How Males and Females’ Minds are Different: Developmental and Structural Differences. Females, can acquire their complex verbal skills as much as a year earlier than males

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/Hodgins1.pdf

Hello Colleagues from RG Forum,

Good Day !

I agree with the answer of Prof. Dr. Krishnan Umachandran and I would like to share:

In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man.

Women devote more brain cells to talking than men.

Girls have 30 % more of the Foxp2, ‘language protein’, than the boys, in a brain area key to language in humans.

Studies have shown that the female love of chit-chat begins at a young age. Girls learn to speak earlier and more quickly than boys. They produce their first words and sentences earlier, have larger vocabularies and use a greater variety of sentence types than boys of the same age.

However, Simon Fisher, one of the Oxford team who first pinpointed the protein, cautioned against drawing big conclusions from a study of such a small number of children.

You can read more details in the following links:

All the Best !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2281891/Women-really-talk-men-13-000-words-day-precise.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-419040/Women-talk-times-men-says-study.html