Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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==== Clitic and tonic pronouns ==== | ==== Clitic and tonic pronouns ==== | ||
French distinguishes between clitic and tonic pronouns. A clitic is a word that attaches in a syntactically rigid way to another word to form a prosodic unit with it, lacking prosodic as well as distributional autonomy.<ref name=":8">Michel Launey, Dominique Levet (2017): ''La catégorie de la personne''. Maison des Sciences des l'Homme Paris Nord. Online at: https://web.ac-reims.fr/casnav/enfants_nouv_arrives/aide_a_la_scolarisation/LGIDF/LGIDF.LA%20PERSONNE.02.03.17.pdf.</ref> Currently, there is no prevailing gender neutral clitic direct object personal pronoun; the most common ones are detailed below. | French distinguishes between clitic and tonic pronouns. A clitic is a word that attaches in a syntactically rigid way to another word to form a prosodic unit with it, lacking prosodic as well as distributional autonomy.<ref name=":8">Michel Launey, Dominique Levet (2017): ''La catégorie de la personne''. Maison des Sciences des l'Homme Paris Nord. Online at: https://web.ac-reims.fr/casnav/enfants_nouv_arrives/aide_a_la_scolarisation/LGIDF/LGIDF.LA%20PERSONNE.02.03.17.pdf.</ref> Currently, there is no prevailing gender-neutral clitic direct object personal pronoun; the most common ones are detailed below. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+Clitic pronouns | |+Clitic pronouns | ||
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|<u>leur</u> | |<u>leur</u> | ||
|} | |} | ||
Tonic pronouns are also called 'autonomous' because, in opposition to clitics, they form their own prosodic unit and can stand alone in the sentence, hence their distribution is not as fixed as the clitics' one.<ref name=":8" /> There are currently two competing systems:<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /> one consists in syncretizing (cf. analogical levelling)<ref name=":9">Campbell, Lyle (1998): ''Historical Linguistics. An Introduction''. First ed. Cambridge/Massachusetts: The MIT Press.</ref> clitic and tonic pronouns, following the paradigm of standard French 'elle', which equates keeping the gender neutral subject pronoun — be it 'iel', 'ille', 'al' or 'ol', etc. — as such; the other approach, exemplified in the table below with 'iel', supports differentiating (cf. analogical extension)<ref name=":9" /> clitics from tonic pronouns, thereby aligning with the paradigm of 'il'. | Tonic pronouns are also called 'autonomous' because, in opposition to clitics, they form their own prosodic unit and can stand alone in the sentence, hence their distribution is not as fixed as the clitics' one.<ref name=":8" /> There are currently two competing systems:<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /> one consists in syncretizing (cf. analogical levelling)<ref name=":9">Campbell, Lyle (1998): ''Historical Linguistics. An Introduction''. First ed. Cambridge/Massachusetts: The MIT Press.</ref> clitic and tonic pronouns, following the paradigm of standard French 'elle', which equates keeping the gender-neutral subject pronoun — be it 'iel', 'ille', 'al' or 'ol', etc. — as such; the other approach, exemplified in the table below with 'iel', supports differentiating (cf. analogical extension)<ref name=":9" /> clitics from tonic pronouns, thereby aligning with the paradigm of 'il'. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+Analogical extension | |+Analogical extension | ||
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==== Indefinite and definite article ==== | ==== Indefinite and definite article ==== | ||
The distinction between 'analytic gender neutral' ''versus'' 'synthetic gender neutral' is usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre'.<ref name=":0" /> On the one hand, while there is no evidence from psycholinguistic studies suggesting that compounds — such as 'maon', from 'ma' and 'mon' — and portmanteau words, like 'utilisateurice', cannot be cognitively interpreted as neutral, these forms could technically also be called that way. On the other hand, since gender neutral forms are inherently inclusive of all genders, there is no reason why they cannot be called that way either. The subsequent interchangeability of these terms makes them unsuitable for differentiating these two methods of creating gender neutral/gender inclusive French words. For this reason, the following table distinguishes them based on their morphological properties— blend words being more analytical and non blend words being more synthetic. | The distinction between 'analytic gender-neutral' ''versus'' 'synthetic gender-neutral' is usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre'.<ref name=":0" /> On the one hand, while there is no evidence from psycholinguistic studies suggesting that compounds — such as 'maon', from 'ma' and 'mon' — and portmanteau words, like 'utilisateurice', cannot be cognitively interpreted as neutral, these forms could technically also be called that way. On the other hand, since gender-neutral forms are inherently inclusive of all genders, there is no reason why they cannot be called that way either. The subsequent interchangeability of these terms makes them unsuitable for differentiating these two methods of creating gender-neutral/gender inclusive French words. For this reason, the following table distinguishes them based on their morphological properties— blend words being more analytical and non blend words being more synthetic. | ||
The predominant neutral form between the analytic and the synthetic gender-neutral approach is denoted in italics in the table. Apart from the italic denoted forms, most of the words depicted in the tables are not in use. The tables thus merely represent suggestions that have been made for neutralizing French, and feature the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world. | The predominant neutral form between the analytic and the synthetic gender-neutral approach is denoted in italics in the table. Apart from the italic denoted forms, most of the words depicted in the tables are not in use. The tables thus merely represent suggestions that have been made for neutralizing French, and feature the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world. | ||
The underlining of phonemes in the IPA transcription of certain words does not carry any phonetic meaning: it is used solely to highlight which phonetic elements from the masculine and feminine forms have been incorporated into the analytic gender neutral neologism. | The underlining of phonemes in the IPA transcription of certain words does not carry any phonetic meaning: it is used solely to highlight which phonetic elements from the masculine and feminine forms have been incorporated into the analytic gender-neutral neologism. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+ | |+ | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!Indefinite article | !Indefinite article | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!1SG | !1SG | ||
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The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context. | The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context. | ||
The pronunciation [sã] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic forms. However, 'tu(n)' is a homophone of the subject pronoun 'tu', and <nowiki><u> — i. e. [y] — is a linguistically marked phone</nowiki>.<ref>Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: ''The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology'', 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>Carvalho, Joaquim (Brandão de) (2023): “From binary features To elements: Implications for markedness theory and phonological acquisition”. In: ''Radical: A Journal of Phonology'' 3, 346-384. Here specifically: 352-353.</ref> Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms from Alpheratz. 'sine' would be the only one without an optional '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si' (i. e. 'if'). Similar-sounding possessive adjectives can be found in Spanish ('mi'), in English ('my'), in Swedish ('min', 'din', 'sin', the last one being a gender neutral reflexive possessive pronoun),<ref>Duolingo Wiki: ''Swedish Skills. Possessives''. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.</ref> in Norwegian,<ref>Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): ''8 Grammar. Possessives''. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.</ref> in Swiss-German,<ref>Klaudia Kolbe (2017): ''Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen.'' Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.</ref> and in other Germanic languages. As 60% of of humans are multilingual,<ref>Sean McGibney (2023): ''What Percentage of the World’s Population is Bilingual? Introduction to Bilingualism: Exploring the Global Language Diversity''. Online at: https://www.newsdle.com/blog/world-population-bilingual-percentage.</ref> cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the memorization and adoption of neologisms.<ref>VAN DIJK C, VAN WONDEREN E, KOUTAMANIS E, KOOTSTRA GJ, DIJKSTRA T, UNSWORTH S. (2022): Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis. In: ''Journal of Child Language'' 5, :897-929. doi:10.1017/S0305000921000337.</ref><ref>van Dijk C, Dijkstra T, Unsworth S. Cross-linguistic influence during online sentence processing in bilingual children (2022): In: ''Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'' 4, 691-704. doi:10.1017/S1366728922000050.</ref> | The pronunciation [sã] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic forms. However, 'tu(n)' is a homophone of the subject pronoun 'tu', and <nowiki><u> — i. e. [y] — is a linguistically marked phone</nowiki>.<ref>Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: ''The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology'', 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>Carvalho, Joaquim (Brandão de) (2023): “From binary features To elements: Implications for markedness theory and phonological acquisition”. In: ''Radical: A Journal of Phonology'' 3, 346-384. Here specifically: 352-353.</ref> Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms from Alpheratz. 'sine' would be the only one without an optional '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si' (i. e. 'if'). Similar-sounding possessive adjectives can be found in Spanish ('mi'), in English ('my'), in Swedish ('min', 'din', 'sin', the last one being a gender-neutral reflexive possessive pronoun),<ref>Duolingo Wiki: ''Swedish Skills. Possessives''. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.</ref> in Norwegian,<ref>Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): ''8 Grammar. Possessives''. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.</ref> in Swiss-German,<ref>Klaudia Kolbe (2017): ''Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen.'' Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.</ref> and in other Germanic languages. As 60% of of humans are multilingual,<ref>Sean McGibney (2023): ''What Percentage of the World’s Population is Bilingual? Introduction to Bilingualism: Exploring the Global Language Diversity''. Online at: https://www.newsdle.com/blog/world-population-bilingual-percentage.</ref> cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the memorization and adoption of neologisms.<ref>VAN DIJK C, VAN WONDEREN E, KOUTAMANIS E, KOOTSTRA GJ, DIJKSTRA T, UNSWORTH S. (2022): Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis. In: ''Journal of Child Language'' 5, :897-929. doi:10.1017/S0305000921000337.</ref><ref>van Dijk C, Dijkstra T, Unsworth S. Cross-linguistic influence during online sentence processing in bilingual children (2022): In: ''Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'' 4, 691-704. doi:10.1017/S1366728922000050.</ref> | ||
==== Demonstrative adjective ==== | ==== Demonstrative adjective ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
!Plural | !Plural | ||
|- | |- | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!Singular | !Singular | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!Singular | !Singular | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!aucun·e | !aucun·e | ||
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=== Nouns and adjectives === | === Nouns and adjectives === | ||
Words such as 'professionnel' and 'professionnelle', which are orally epicene and, thus, indistinguishable in speech, are not included; the use of their shortened doublet form enables inclusivity and gender neutrality in written language. | Words such as 'professionnel' and 'professionnelle', which are orally epicene and, thus, indistinguishable in speech, are not included; the use of their shortened doublet form enables inclusivity and gender-neutrality in written language. | ||
==== Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix' ==== | ==== Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix' ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-eur/-euse | !-eur/-euse | ||
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|connarde | |connarde | ||
|} | |} | ||
The analytic gender neutral forms that originate from Latin '-or' and '-rix' are currently in use,<ref name=":14">Viennot, Eliane (2023): Pour un langage non sexiste ! Acteurice, visiteureuse... Des néologismes de plus en plus employés. Online at: https://www.elianeviennot.fr/Langue-mots.html.</ref> even though they haven't been added to any French dictionary yet. Some podcasts where you can hear them are ''Les Couilles sur la table'', ''Parler comme jamais'' and ''Papatriarcat''. | The analytic gender-neutral forms that originate from Latin '-or' and '-rix' are currently in use,<ref name=":14">Viennot, Eliane (2023): Pour un langage non sexiste ! Acteurice, visiteureuse... Des néologismes de plus en plus employés. Online at: https://www.elianeviennot.fr/Langue-mots.html.</ref> even though they haven't been added to any French dictionary yet. Some podcasts where you can hear them are ''Les Couilles sur la table'', ''Parler comme jamais'' and ''Papatriarcat''. | ||
Synthetic gender neutral forms have the advantage of conserving the original syllable number of the word, resulting in them not sounding as lengthy as the analytic ones. In addition, the '-aire' suffix does exist in contemporary French and produces epicene nouns, such as 'un·e destinataire', 'un·e secrétaire', 'un·e volontaire', 'un·e bibliothécaire', etc. However, several psycholinguistic studies conducted in French<ref>Brauer, M., and Landry, M. (2008): Un ministre peut-il tomber enceinte? L'impact du générique masculin sur les représentations mentales. In: ''L'Année Psychol''. 108, 243-272. DOI: 10.4074/S0003503308002030.</ref><ref>Xiao, H., Strickland, B., and Peperkamp, S. (2023): How fair is gender-fair language? Insights from gender ratio estimations in French. In: ''J. Lang. Soc. Psychol''. 42, 82-106. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X221084643.</ref> and in German<ref>Stahlberg, D., Sczesny, S., and Braun, F. (2001): Name your favorite musician: effects of masculine generics and of their alternatives in German. In: ''J. Lang. Soc. Psychol''. 20, 464-469. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X01020004004.</ref> have found that "gender-unmarked forms are not fully effective in neutralizing the masculine bias"<ref name=":15">Spinelli, Elsa/Chevrot, Jean-Pierre/Varnet, Léo (2023): Neutral is not fair enough: testing the efficiency of different language gender-fair strategies. In: ''Front. Psychol.'' 14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1256779.</ref> and that "contracted double forms [such as acteur·ice] are more effective in promoting gender balance compared to gender-unmarked forms."<ref name=":15" /> Regarding this issue, analytic gender neutral forms could then be a more effective solution than synthetic ones. | Synthetic gender-neutral forms have the advantage of conserving the original syllable number of the word, resulting in them not sounding as lengthy as the analytic ones. In addition, the '-aire' suffix does exist in contemporary French and produces epicene nouns, such as 'un·e destinataire', 'un·e secrétaire', 'un·e volontaire', 'un·e bibliothécaire', etc. However, several psycholinguistic studies conducted in French<ref>Brauer, M., and Landry, M. (2008): Un ministre peut-il tomber enceinte? L'impact du générique masculin sur les représentations mentales. In: ''L'Année Psychol''. 108, 243-272. DOI: 10.4074/S0003503308002030.</ref><ref>Xiao, H., Strickland, B., and Peperkamp, S. (2023): How fair is gender-fair language? Insights from gender ratio estimations in French. In: ''J. Lang. Soc. Psychol''. 42, 82-106. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X221084643.</ref> and in German<ref>Stahlberg, D., Sczesny, S., and Braun, F. (2001): Name your favorite musician: effects of masculine generics and of their alternatives in German. In: ''J. Lang. Soc. Psychol''. 20, 464-469. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X01020004004.</ref> have found that "gender-unmarked forms are not fully effective in neutralizing the masculine bias"<ref name=":15">Spinelli, Elsa/Chevrot, Jean-Pierre/Varnet, Léo (2023): Neutral is not fair enough: testing the efficiency of different language gender-fair strategies. In: ''Front. Psychol.'' 14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1256779.</ref> and that "contracted double forms [such as acteur·ice] are more effective in promoting gender balance compared to gender-unmarked forms."<ref name=":15" /> Regarding this issue, analytic gender-neutral forms could then be a more effective solution than synthetic ones. | ||
==== Endings with '-x' in the masculine ==== | ==== Endings with '-x' in the masculine ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-eux/-euse | !-eux/-euse | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-x/-sse | !-x/-sse | ||
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|douxe | |douxe | ||
|} | |} | ||
The synthetic gender neutral forms where the silent consonant of the masculine form turns into an audible one allows to conserve of the same number of syllables. They have an audible suffix, as the feminine forms do, without that suffix being the feminine one. This situates them between a feminine and a masculine word. In addition, the fact that the consonant present in the suffix of gender neutral form is the same as the one in the masculine ones relieves memorization for literate French speaking people. In cases however where the masculine doesn't display a silent <x> and the feminine has a characteristic suffix, such as 'dieu, déesse', adopting the analytic approach might be more coherent in terms of spelling and inclusion (see previous paragraph). | The synthetic gender-neutral forms where the silent consonant of the masculine form turns into an audible one allows to conserve of the same number of syllables. They have an audible suffix, as the feminine forms do, without that suffix being the feminine one. This situates them between a feminine and a masculine word. In addition, the fact that the consonant present in the suffix of gender-neutral form is the same as the one in the masculine ones relieves memorization for literate French speaking people. In cases however where the masculine doesn't display a silent <x> and the feminine has a characteristic suffix, such as 'dieu, déesse', adopting the analytic approach might be more coherent in terms of spelling and inclusion (see previous paragraph). | ||
==== Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form ==== | ==== Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-ain/-aine | !-ain/-aine | ||
| Line 501: | Line 501: | ||
|mignaine, ''mignan'' | |mignaine, ''mignan'' | ||
|} | |} | ||
The '-aine' suffix has gained popularity. In monosyllabic words such as 'brun·e', however, the comprehension might be hindered, which could explain why we rather find 'bran', that conserves the nasality of the final vowel, only changing its place of articulation. Words with a '-ien/-ienne' (and obviously also '-ain/-aine') suffix cannot form a synthetic gender neutral form with '-aine', as it would result in a word that is pronounced the exact same way as the feminine one (cf. 'citoyenne'). Here again, the synthetical neutral forms created with '-an' only retain a masculine phonetic trait (i. e. its manner of articulation — vocalic — and its nasality trait — which is positive). Theoretically, this could lead to similar issues as discussed in the Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix'-subchapter. The same could be true with synthetic gender neutral forms ending in '-aine', but this time in favour of the feminine. However, even though the suffix '-aine' could sound feminine, the resulting form is still easily discriminable from the original one, since the vowels implied are oral and not nasal, and can thus more difficultly be taken for mispronunciations — while 'écrivan', 'citoyan' and 'bran' could (for more information see the Indefinite and definite article-subchapter). | The '-aine' suffix has gained popularity. In monosyllabic words such as 'brun·e', however, the comprehension might be hindered, which could explain why we rather find 'bran', that conserves the nasality of the final vowel, only changing its place of articulation. Words with a '-ien/-ienne' (and obviously also '-ain/-aine') suffix cannot form a synthetic gender-neutral form with '-aine', as it would result in a word that is pronounced the exact same way as the feminine one (cf. 'citoyenne'). Here again, the synthetical neutral forms created with '-an' only retain a masculine phonetic trait (i. e. its manner of articulation — vocalic — and its nasality trait — which is positive). Theoretically, this could lead to similar issues as discussed in the Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix'-subchapter. The same could be true with synthetic gender-neutral forms ending in '-aine', but this time in favour of the feminine. However, even though the suffix '-aine' could sound feminine, the resulting form is still easily discriminable from the original one, since the vowels implied are oral and not nasal, and can thus more difficultly be taken for mispronunciations — while 'écrivan', 'citoyan' and 'bran' could (for more information see the Indefinite and definite article-subchapter). | ||
==== Endings with silent consonant X in the masculine and audible consonant X in the feminine ==== | ==== Endings with silent consonant X in the masculine and audible consonant X in the feminine ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-t/-te | !-t/-te | ||
| Line 566: | Line 566: | ||
|base | |base | ||
|} | |} | ||
As the table shows, no approach has achieved any popularity among this type of nouns and adjectives. As discussed in the Demonstrative adjective-subchapter, one intuitive way of creating a gender neutral form consists in voicing or devoicing the silent consonant of the masculine form while making it audible in the neologism. Masculine word that have an final silent '-s' ending constitute a challenge: when put in the feminine form, the <nowiki><s> can turn into different sibilants: [s], [z] (and [ʃ]). The 's' grapheme of the masculine which behaves as a silent segment can thus hide either a voiced sibilant or a voiceless one. So, while the silent consonants of the other words can simply be transformed into their voiceless homolog to be differentiated from the feminine, to form gender neutral neologisms from words such as 'antillais·e' and 'bas·e', the pronunciation of the feminine form needs to be taken into account: if the feminine is pronounced with a [s], the pronunciation of the gender neutral form has to be [z]; if the feminine is pronounced [z], the gender neutral form's pronunciation must be [s] to avoid homophony.</nowiki> | As the table shows, no approach has achieved any popularity among this type of nouns and adjectives. As discussed in the Demonstrative adjective-subchapter, one intuitive way of creating a gender-neutral form consists in voicing or devoicing the silent consonant of the masculine form while making it audible in the neologism. Masculine word that have an final silent '-s' ending constitute a challenge: when put in the feminine form, the <nowiki><s> can turn into different sibilants: [s], [z] (and [ʃ]). The 's' grapheme of the masculine which behaves as a silent segment can thus hide either a voiced sibilant or a voiceless one. So, while the silent consonants of the other words can simply be transformed into their voiceless homolog to be differentiated from the feminine, to form gender-neutral neologisms from words such as 'antillais·e' and 'bas·e', the pronunciation of the feminine form needs to be taken into account: if the feminine is pronounced with a [s], the pronunciation of the gender-neutral form has to be [z]; if the feminine is pronounced [z], the gender-neutral form's pronunciation must be [s] to avoid homophony.</nowiki> | ||
==== Endings with a rounded vowel in the masculine and '-_(l)le' in the feminine ==== | ==== Endings with a rounded vowel in the masculine and '-_(l)le' in the feminine ==== | ||
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!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-eau/-elle | !-eau/-elle | ||
| Line 609: | Line 609: | ||
!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!-c/-che | !-c/-che | ||
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Florence Ashley highlights that the order of the feminine and masculine morphemes doesn't matter.<ref name=":5" /> Usage, intelligibleness and personal preference dictate which forms will gain in popularity. However, the prosodic sequencing of syllables in French can have an impact on intelligibility. 'naïvif' — feminine morpheme first, masculine morpheme afterwards —, for example, sequenced as [na'i'vif], makes appear the word 'vif' (i. e. 'vivacious'). | Florence Ashley highlights that the order of the feminine and masculine morphemes doesn't matter.<ref name=":5" /> Usage, intelligibleness and personal preference dictate which forms will gain in popularity. However, the prosodic sequencing of syllables in French can have an impact on intelligibility. 'naïvif' — feminine morpheme first, masculine morpheme afterwards —, for example, sequenced as [na'i'vif], makes appear the word 'vif' (i. e. 'vivacious'). | ||
==== Some gender neutral nouns from irregular substantives ==== | ==== Some gender-neutral nouns from irregular substantives ==== | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+Irregular substantives | |+Irregular substantives | ||
| Line 632: | Line 632: | ||
!Masculine | !Masculine | ||
!Feminine | !Feminine | ||
!Analytic gender neutral | !Analytic gender-neutral | ||
!Synthetic gender neutral | !Synthetic gender-neutral | ||
|- | |- | ||
!👑 | !👑 | ||
| Line 661: | Line 661: | ||
== Discussion == | == Discussion == | ||
How do neologisms become part of the vocabulary of a language? Roswitha Fischer, citing Renate Bartsch,<ref>Bartsch, Renate (1987): ''Sprachnormen: Theorie und Praxis: Studienausgabe''. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110935875</nowiki>,</ref> puts it like this:<blockquote>"1) [T]he item is used by a prestigious group that is educated and has political and economical power; 2) it is used in written discourse; and 3) it is located in an area where several varieties come into contact and assimilate [...]."<ref name=":16">Fischer, Roswitha (1998): ''Lexical Change in Present-Day English. A Corpus-Based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologism''. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Online at: <nowiki>https://books.google.ch/books?id=H93nAVbwZwwC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false</nowiki>.</ref></blockquote>Currently, gender neutral French neologisms are not widespread, even in LGBT and, more specifically, nonbinary communities. We find isolated uses of them in the written form;<ref>Café aux étoiles. maison d'édition sereine et onirique (no data): ''Littérature''. Online at: https://cafeauxetoiles.fr/litterature/.</ref><ref>Les Ourses à plumes. Webzine féministe (2022): ''Les elfes noirs ne sont jamais noirs (1) : enjeux de la représentation dans les fictions de l'imaginaire''. Online at: https://lesoursesaplumes.info/tag/une/.</ref> their use in speech remains rather peripheral too. However, they are located on the Internet, where African, American, European and minority language francophones all around the world can technically meet. Additionally, descriptive (cf. ''Le Robert'') instead of prescriptive (cf. L'Académie) approaches have lead to one of them, 'iel', having entered written discourse. | How do neologisms become part of the vocabulary of a language? Roswitha Fischer, citing Renate Bartsch,<ref>Bartsch, Renate (1987): ''Sprachnormen: Theorie und Praxis: Studienausgabe''. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110935875</nowiki>,</ref> puts it like this:<blockquote>"1) [T]he item is used by a prestigious group that is educated and has political and economical power; 2) it is used in written discourse; and 3) it is located in an area where several varieties come into contact and assimilate [...]."<ref name=":16">Fischer, Roswitha (1998): ''Lexical Change in Present-Day English. A Corpus-Based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologism''. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Online at: <nowiki>https://books.google.ch/books?id=H93nAVbwZwwC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false</nowiki>.</ref></blockquote>Currently, gender-neutral French neologisms are not widespread, even in LGBT and, more specifically, nonbinary communities. We find isolated uses of them in the written form;<ref>Café aux étoiles. maison d'édition sereine et onirique (no data): ''Littérature''. Online at: https://cafeauxetoiles.fr/litterature/.</ref><ref>Les Ourses à plumes. Webzine féministe (2022): ''Les elfes noirs ne sont jamais noirs (1) : enjeux de la représentation dans les fictions de l'imaginaire''. Online at: https://lesoursesaplumes.info/tag/une/.</ref> their use in speech remains rather peripheral too. However, they are located on the Internet, where African, American, European and minority language francophones all around the world can technically meet. Additionally, descriptive (cf. ''Le Robert'') instead of prescriptive (cf. L'Académie) approaches have lead to one of them, 'iel', having entered written discourse. | ||
Neologisms should be learnable. That means that they should be easily understandable and easy to remember (cf. morphological linguistic motivation), easy to pronounce — that is, they should respect the phoneme inventory and the phonotactics of the given language —, familiar and responding to a need.<ref name=":16" /> If all these criteria are met, they will start being used by some avant-gardists. If some of these avant-gardists gather big online communities, the frequency to which these words will be used will rise, creating familiarity in the francophone community with these forms. From then, some of them could find their way into the standard vocabulary. | Neologisms should be learnable. That means that they should be easily understandable and easy to remember (cf. morphological linguistic motivation), easy to pronounce — that is, they should respect the phoneme inventory and the phonotactics of the given language —, familiar and responding to a need.<ref name=":16" /> If all these criteria are met, they will start being used by some avant-gardists. If some of these avant-gardists gather big online communities, the frequency to which these words will be used will rise, creating familiarity in the francophone community with these forms. From then, some of them could find their way into the standard vocabulary. | ||
Revision as of 09:32, 19 December 2023
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The evolution of language is marked by an ongoing interplay between tradition and innovation. In the intricate tapestry of linguistic transformations, neologisms — newly coined words or phrases — and the retrieval of archaic substantives represent an essential element shaping the lexicon. Historical antecedents, contemporary linguistic theories, and emerging practices set the stage for the adoption and assimilation of new linguistic constructs. As language continues to evolve in response to societal shifts, these discussions serve as testament to the ongoing evolution of the French language in its quest for inclusivity.
Non neologisms
Refeminization[1]
Prior to the 17th century, French, like Italian, Spanish, and other Romance languages, utilized feminine inflections to distinguish female professionals. However, for a range of reasons — both societal, such as misogyny,[2][3] and linguistic[4], as French was being standardized and dialect speakers were expected to learn French — grammarians ensured that these feminine designations were effectively removed from the language.[2] Today, many people refer to this as 'feminization,' believing that these occupational titles are newly coined terms. However, this is not the case, as they are being revived from an earlier iteration of the French language, making 'refeminization' a more accurate term. Even though it seems paradoxical, refeminization is part of a movement to degender the French language, as studies in various languages have demonstrated that the generic masculine, despite being considered gender-neutral by French prescriptive grammar,[5] is not actually cognitively neutral.[6][7] By incorporating the feminine form of a word, speakers acknowledge the presence of individuals of more genders than just one.
| Masculine | Feminine by the Académie | Refeminized |
|---|---|---|
| un auteur | une auteur(e) | une autrice |
| un professeur | une professeur(e) | une professeuse |
| un peintre | une peintre | une peintresse |
| un chirurgien | une femme chirurgien | une chirurgienne |
Doublets
For example, « Nous prions les étudiantes et (les) étudiants de remettre leur copie à la personne responsable ». Some people don't enjoy the repetition,[8] others consider that the doublets don't encompass all genders,[9] others again are unsure which form to mention first, since the order conveys information about the value the speaker gives to each item.[10]
Shortened doublets[9]
The feminine suffix is attached to the masculine, rather than the whole word being repeated (as in classical doublets).[8]
| Middle dot | Dot | Parentheses | Slash | Dash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| professionnel·les
professionnel·le·s |
acteur.rice | employé(e) | chanteur/euse | boulanger-ère |
Epicene person descriptions[1]
For instance, « Les élèves apprennent leur leçon. »; « L'enfant regarde la télévision. »; « Les juges ont pris leur décision. ». As singular articles indicate gender ('la' and 'le'), this technique works best with plural forms. However, it also works with singular forms if the noun begins with a vowel, because the article automatically becomes "l'...," which does not express gender. A drawback is that there are not epicene occupational titles for all professions or functions.
Grammatically fixed gender nouns and impersonal formulations[11]
The table below shows gendered language on the left and neutral — i.e. grammatical gender that has nothing to do with biological sex or gender identity — language on the right.
| Inclusive gendered language | Inclusive neutral language |
|---|---|
| Les auditrices et auditeurs sont attentifs. | L'auditoire est attentif. |
| Les spectateurs et spectatrices sont très calmes aujourd'hui. | Le public est très calme aujourd'hui. |
| Explicit binary gender | Grammatically fixed gender |
|---|---|
| Je ne connais pas cet homme. | Je ne connais pas cette personne. |
| La mère de Jo ne parle pas le néerlandais. | Le parent de Jo ne parle pas le néerlandais. |
Proximity agreement[12]
Up until the 18th century, the masculine gender did not always take precedence over the feminine in instances where the genders could theoretically be congruent: proximity and free-choice agreement coexisted alongside the masculine-over-feminine rule.[3][4] For a significant portion of Old French history, proximity agreement was the most prevalent method for agreeing adjectives, past participles, etc. (cf. Anglade 1931:172).[13] Today, this agreement could facilitate gender equality in grammar instead of the masculine-over-feminine hierarchy that was suggested in the 17th and 18th century by French grammarians such as Malherbe, Vaugelas, Bouhours and Beauzée:
« Le genre masculin, étant le plus noble, doit prédominer toutes les fois que le masculin et le féminin se trouvent ensemble. » (Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Remarques sur la langue française, 1647).[2]
« Lorsque les deux genres se rencontrent, il faut que le plus noble l’emporte. » (Bouhours 1675).[5]
« Le genre masculin est réputé plus noble que le féminin à cause de la supériorité du mâle sur la femelle. » (Beauzée 1767).[5]
| Masculine-prevails-over-feminine rule | Proximity agreement |
|---|---|
| Ces œillets et ces roses sont beaux. | Ces œillets et ces roses sont belles. |
| Les nombreux filles et garçons. | Les nombreuses filles et garçons. |
Neologisms
Personal pronouns
Subject pronouns
French only distinguishes gender in the third-person singular (cf. 'elle' and 'il'). Up until the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun 'el'/'al'.[14] Today, 'el' cannot be reintroduced from Old French as it would sound identical to 'elle', the current feminin subject pronoun. As for 'al', it sounds like 'elle' in spoken Canadian French.[15] It could, however, still be a viable option for the rest of the francophone community.[16] Nowadays, according to the Guide de rédaction inclusive (2021:14) from the Laval University,[11] the Guide de grammaire neutre et inclusive (2021:5) from Divergenres,[1] the Petit dico de français neutre/inclusif (2018) from La vie en Queer,[17] and Wiki Trans (2019),[18] the most widely adopted subject (neo)pronoun is 'iel'. It was added to the prestigious dictionary Le Robert in 2021.[19] Alongside 'iel', Canadian French also uses 'ille'.[1][15] In metropolitan France, the pronoun 'al', proposed by the linguist Alpheratz in their book Grammaire du français inclusif (2018) has gained some recognition. The table below presents the primary gender-neutral subject pronouns found in the French-speaking world.
| gender-neutral subject pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dominant usage | iel [jɛl] | ille [ij][15] | al |
| Peripheral usage | ol | ul | ael |
Clitic and tonic pronouns
French distinguishes between clitic and tonic pronouns. A clitic is a word that attaches in a syntactically rigid way to another word to form a prosodic unit with it, lacking prosodic as well as distributional autonomy.[20] Currently, there is no prevailing gender-neutral clitic direct object personal pronoun; the most common ones are detailed below.
| Subject | Direct object | Indirect object |
|---|---|---|
| il | le, (l') | lui |
| elle | la, (l') | lui |
| iel | lae [lae]/lo/li/lu/lia, (l') | lui |
| ils | les | leur |
| elles | les | leur |
| iels | les | leur |
Tonic pronouns are also called 'autonomous' because, in opposition to clitics, they form their own prosodic unit and can stand alone in the sentence, hence their distribution is not as fixed as the clitics' one.[20] There are currently two competing systems:[18][17] one consists in syncretizing (cf. analogical levelling)[21] clitic and tonic pronouns, following the paradigm of standard French 'elle', which equates keeping the gender-neutral subject pronoun — be it 'iel', 'ille', 'al' or 'ol', etc. — as such; the other approach, exemplified in the table below with 'iel', supports differentiating (cf. analogical extension)[21] clitics from tonic pronouns, thereby aligning with the paradigm of 'il'.
| Clitic subject pronoun | Tonic pronoun |
|---|---|
| il | lui |
| elle | elle |
| iel | ellui [ɛllɥi] |
| ils | eux |
| elles | elles |
| iels | elleux [ɛllø] |
Determiners
Indefinite and definite article
The distinction between 'analytic gender-neutral' versus 'synthetic gender-neutral' is usually referred to as 'inclusif' versus 'neutre'.[1] On the one hand, while there is no evidence from psycholinguistic studies suggesting that compounds — such as 'maon', from 'ma' and 'mon' — and portmanteau words, like 'utilisateurice', cannot be cognitively interpreted as neutral, these forms could technically also be called that way. On the other hand, since gender-neutral forms are inherently inclusive of all genders, there is no reason why they cannot be called that way either. The subsequent interchangeability of these terms makes them unsuitable for differentiating these two methods of creating gender-neutral/gender inclusive French words. For this reason, the following table distinguishes them based on their morphological properties— blend words being more analytical and non blend words being more synthetic.
The predominant neutral form between the analytic and the synthetic gender-neutral approach is denoted in italics in the table. Apart from the italic denoted forms, most of the words depicted in the tables are not in use. The tables thus merely represent suggestions that have been made for neutralizing French, and feature the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world.
The underlining of phonemes in the IPA transcription of certain words does not carry any phonetic meaning: it is used solely to highlight which phonetic elements from the masculine and feminine forms have been incorporated into the analytic gender-neutral neologism.
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite article | un [œ̃] | une [yn] | eune [œn] | an [ã]/[an] |
| Definite article | le | la | lae [lae], lea [ləa] | lo, li, lu, lia |
Although 'an' is quite common, particularly in the [ã] pronunciation, it lacks any phonetic resemblance to 'une', while sharing a core feature with 'un': both consist solely of a nasal vowel. 'eune' [œn], on the other hand, combines the vocal roundedness of 'un' [œ̃] with the terminal nasal consonant [n] of 'une'. Nonetheless, in metropolitan French, where 'un' is typically pronounced as [ɛ̃], 'eune' shares a phonetic characteristic exclusively with 'une'.
Another drawback of 'an' pronounced as [ã], however, is its nasality, a factor known for making vowels challenging to distinguish and learn, even for native French speakers.[22] Consequently, [ã] might be perceived as a mispronunciation of 'un' or simply not distinct enough from 'un' to be recognized as a separate morpheme.
Possessive adjectives
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | mon | ma | maon [maõ] | man [mã]/[man], mi(ne) |
| 2SG | ton | ta | taon [taõ] | tan [tã]/[tan], ti(ne) |
| 3SG | son | sa | saon [saõ] | san [sã]/[san], sine [sin] |
The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context.
The pronunciation [sã] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'[16] as synthetic forms. However, 'tu(n)' is a homophone of the subject pronoun 'tu', and <u> — i. e. [y] — is a linguistically marked phone.[23][24] Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms from Alpheratz. 'sine' would be the only one without an optional '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si' (i. e. 'if'). Similar-sounding possessive adjectives can be found in Spanish ('mi'), in English ('my'), in Swedish ('min', 'din', 'sin', the last one being a gender-neutral reflexive possessive pronoun),[25] in Norwegian,[26] in Swiss-German,[27] and in other Germanic languages. As 60% of of humans are multilingual,[28] cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the memorization and adoption of neologisms.[29][30]
Demonstrative adjective
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ce/cet | cette | cèd | ces |
La vie en Queer proposes 'cet', which sounds the same as that of the feminine form 'cette'; Divergenres retains 'cèx', but notes that it sounds like the word 'sexe'. A third possibility is to voice or to devoice the final consonant of the feminine word, for instance turning [t] to [d] or [g] to [k]. This would allow the word to remain easily recognizable while being distinct from both the masculine and the feminine forms. This approach has the advantage of minimizing misunderstandings and memorization effort.
Non personal pronouns
Possessive pronouns
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | le mien [lə mjɛ̃] | la mienne [la mjɛn] | lae mienn [lae mjɛ̃n] | lo miem |
| Plural | les miens [le mjɛ̃] | les miennes [le mjɛn] | les mienns [le mjɛ̃n] | les miems |
Currently, there is no established combination of definite article and possessive pronoun. In this table, the definite article "lae" is simply paired with the possessive pronoun "mienn" for morphological reasons, as both words are of the analytic gender-neutral type. This also applies to the definite article "lo" and the possessive pronoun "miem", both of which are of the synthetic type.
Demonstrative pronouns
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | celui [səlɥi] | celle [sɛl] | cellui [sɛlɥi] | |
| Plural | ceux [sø] | celles [sɛl] | celleux [sɛlø] | ceuxes [søks] |
Indefinite pronouns
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aucun·e | aucun [okœ̃] | aucune [okyn] | aucunn [okœ̃n], aucueune [okœn] | aucan [okã]/[okan] |
| chacun·e | chacun [ʃakœ̃] | chacune [ʃakyn] | chacunn [ʃakœ̃n], chacueune [ʃakœn] | chacan [ʃakã]/[ʃakan] |
| certain·e | certain [sɛʁtɛ̃] | certaine [sɛʁtɛn] | certainn [sɛʁtɛ̃n] | certan [sɛʁtã]/[sɛʁtan] |
| tout·e | tout | toute | toude | |
| tous/toutes | tous | toutes | toustes | |
| quelqu'un·e | quelqu'un [kɛlkœ̃] | quelqu'une [kɛlkyn] | quelqu'unn [kɛlkœ̃n], quelqu'eune [kɛlkœn] |
'quelqu'une' is extremely rare in modern French, so that it is not clear how necessary the degendering of this indefinite pronoun is.
Nouns and adjectives
Words such as 'professionnel' and 'professionnelle', which are orally epicene and, thus, indistinguishable in speech, are not included; the use of their shortened doublet form enables inclusivity and gender-neutrality in written language.
Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix'
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -eur/-euse | enquêteur | enquêteuse | enquêteureuse | enquêtaire |
| -eur/-rice | acteur | actrice | acteurice | actaire |
| -eur/-_resse1 | docteur | doctoresse[31] | docteuresse | doctaire |
| -eur/-_resse2 | enchanteur | enchanteresse | enchanteuresse | enchantaire |
| -e/-esse | maître | maîtresse | maîtré/maîtrè (or maîtræ) | maîtrexe |
| -ard/-asse | connard | connasse | connarde |
The analytic gender-neutral forms that originate from Latin '-or' and '-rix' are currently in use,[32] even though they haven't been added to any French dictionary yet. Some podcasts where you can hear them are Les Couilles sur la table, Parler comme jamais and Papatriarcat.
Synthetic gender-neutral forms have the advantage of conserving the original syllable number of the word, resulting in them not sounding as lengthy as the analytic ones. In addition, the '-aire' suffix does exist in contemporary French and produces epicene nouns, such as 'un·e destinataire', 'un·e secrétaire', 'un·e volontaire', 'un·e bibliothécaire', etc. However, several psycholinguistic studies conducted in French[33][34] and in German[35] have found that "gender-unmarked forms are not fully effective in neutralizing the masculine bias"[36] and that "contracted double forms [such as acteur·ice] are more effective in promoting gender balance compared to gender-unmarked forms."[36] Regarding this issue, analytic gender-neutral forms could then be a more effective solution than synthetic ones.
Endings with '-x' in the masculine
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -eux/-euse | amoureux | amoureuse | amoureuxe [amuʁøks] | |
| -eux/-esse | dieu | déesse | dieuesse | dieuxe |
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -x/-sse | roux | rousse | rouxe | |
| -x/-ce | doux | douce | douxe |
The synthetic gender-neutral forms where the silent consonant of the masculine form turns into an audible one allows to conserve of the same number of syllables. They have an audible suffix, as the feminine forms do, without that suffix being the feminine one. This situates them between a feminine and a masculine word. In addition, the fact that the consonant present in the suffix of gender-neutral form is the same as the one in the masculine ones relieves memorization for literate French speaking people. In cases however where the masculine doesn't display a silent <x> and the feminine has a characteristic suffix, such as 'dieu, déesse', adopting the analytic approach might be more coherent in terms of spelling and inclusion (see previous paragraph).
Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ain/-aine | écrivain [ekʁivɛ̃] | écrivaine [ekʁivɛn] | écrivainn [ekʁivɛ̃n] | écrivan |
| -ain/-ine | copain [kɔpɛ̃] | copine [kɔpin] | copainn [kɔpɛ̃n], copaine [kɔpɛn] | |
| -in/-ine | cousin [kuzɛ̃] | cousine [kuzin] | cousinn [kuzɛ̃n] | cousaine [kuzɛn] |
| -an/-anne | paysan [pɛizã] | paysanne [pɛizan] | paysann [pɛizãn] | paysaine [pɛizɛn] |
| -ien/-ienne | citoyen [sitwajɛ̃] | citoyenne [sitwajɛn] | citoyenn [sitwajɛ̃n] | citoyan |
| -un/-une1 | brun [bʁœ̃] | brune [bʁyn] | brunn [bʁœ̃n] | braine, bran |
| -un/-une2 | opportun [ɔpɔʁtœ̃] | opportune [ɔpɔʁtyn] | opportunn [ɔpɔʁtœ̃n] | opportaine |
| -on/-onne | mignon [miɲõ] | mignonne [miɲɔn] | mignonn [miɲõn] | mignaine, mignan |
The '-aine' suffix has gained popularity. In monosyllabic words such as 'brun·e', however, the comprehension might be hindered, which could explain why we rather find 'bran', that conserves the nasality of the final vowel, only changing its place of articulation. Words with a '-ien/-ienne' (and obviously also '-ain/-aine') suffix cannot form a synthetic gender-neutral form with '-aine', as it would result in a word that is pronounced the exact same way as the feminine one (cf. 'citoyenne'). Here again, the synthetical neutral forms created with '-an' only retain a masculine phonetic trait (i. e. its manner of articulation — vocalic — and its nasality trait — which is positive). Theoretically, this could lead to similar issues as discussed in the Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix'-subchapter. The same could be true with synthetic gender-neutral forms ending in '-aine', but this time in favour of the feminine. However, even though the suffix '-aine' could sound feminine, the resulting form is still easily discriminable from the original one, since the vowels implied are oral and not nasal, and can thus more difficultly be taken for mispronunciations — while 'écrivan', 'citoyan' and 'bran' could (for more information see the Indefinite and definite article-subchapter).
Endings with silent consonant X in the masculine and audible consonant X in the feminine
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -t/-te | pâlot | pâlotte | pâlode, pâlat, pâlasse | |
| -d/-de | grand | grande | grante, granxe, gransse | |
| -iet/iète | inquiet | inquiète | inquiède | |
| -g/gue | oblong | oblongue | oblonk | |
| -er/-ière | premier [pʁəmje] | première [pʁəmjɛʁ] | premiérère, premiér [pʁəmjeʁ] | |
| -c/-che | blanc | blanche | blank | |
| -s/-se | antillais | antillaise | antillaisse | |
| -s/-che | frais | fraîche | fraîchais | fraisse |
| -s/-sse | bas | basse | babasse | base |
As the table shows, no approach has achieved any popularity among this type of nouns and adjectives. As discussed in the Demonstrative adjective-subchapter, one intuitive way of creating a gender-neutral form consists in voicing or devoicing the silent consonant of the masculine form while making it audible in the neologism. Masculine word that have an final silent '-s' ending constitute a challenge: when put in the feminine form, the <s> can turn into different sibilants: [s], [z] (and [ʃ]). The 's' grapheme of the masculine which behaves as a silent segment can thus hide either a voiced sibilant or a voiceless one. So, while the silent consonants of the other words can simply be transformed into their voiceless homolog to be differentiated from the feminine, to form gender-neutral neologisms from words such as 'antillais·e' and 'bas·e', the pronunciation of the feminine form needs to be taken into account: if the feminine is pronounced with a [s], the pronunciation of the gender-neutral form has to be [z]; if the feminine is pronounced [z], the gender-neutral form's pronunciation must be [s] to avoid homophony.
Endings with a rounded vowel in the masculine and '-_(l)le' in the feminine
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -eau/-elle | jumeau | jumelle | jumelleau, jumeaulle | |
| -ou/-olle | fou | folle | follou, foulle | |
| -aux/-ales | spéciaux | spéciales | spécialaux, spéciaules | |
| -eux/-lle | vieux/vieil | vieille | vieilleux, vieuille |
/a/ is sometimes pronounced as [ɔ] in Canadian French, which is why neologisms as 'spéciaules' could be understood as the feminine singular and plural as well as masculine singular form of 'spécial·e'.
Endings with consonant X in the masculine and consonant X with phonetic change triggered by presence of final '-e' in the feminine
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -c/-che | sec | sèche | seckèche, sèchec | |
| -f/-ve | naïf | naïve | naïfive, naïvif |
Florence Ashley highlights that the order of the feminine and masculine morphemes doesn't matter.[15] Usage, intelligibleness and personal preference dictate which forms will gain in popularity. However, the prosodic sequencing of syllables in French can have an impact on intelligibility. 'naïvif' — feminine morpheme first, masculine morpheme afterwards —, for example, sequenced as [na'i'vif], makes appear the word 'vif' (i. e. 'vivacious').
Some gender-neutral nouns from irregular substantives
| Masculine | Feminine | Analytic gender-neutral | Synthetic gender-neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 👑 | roi | reine | roine | |
| 🦸🏽♂️ | héros | héroïne | héroïnos | héroan [eʁoã]/[eʁoan], héroal |
| 👨👨👧👦 | frère | sœur | frœur, srère | adelphe |
| 👱🏿 | Monsieur | Madame | Monestre |
Discussion
How do neologisms become part of the vocabulary of a language? Roswitha Fischer, citing Renate Bartsch,[38] puts it like this:
"1) [T]he item is used by a prestigious group that is educated and has political and economical power; 2) it is used in written discourse; and 3) it is located in an area where several varieties come into contact and assimilate [...]."[39]
Currently, gender-neutral French neologisms are not widespread, even in LGBT and, more specifically, nonbinary communities. We find isolated uses of them in the written form;[40][41] their use in speech remains rather peripheral too. However, they are located on the Internet, where African, American, European and minority language francophones all around the world can technically meet. Additionally, descriptive (cf. Le Robert) instead of prescriptive (cf. L'Académie) approaches have lead to one of them, 'iel', having entered written discourse.
Neologisms should be learnable. That means that they should be easily understandable and easy to remember (cf. morphological linguistic motivation), easy to pronounce — that is, they should respect the phoneme inventory and the phonotactics of the given language —, familiar and responding to a need.[39] If all these criteria are met, they will start being used by some avant-gardists. If some of these avant-gardists gather big online communities, the frequency to which these words will be used will rise, creating familiarity in the francophone community with these forms. From then, some of them could find their way into the standard vocabulary.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Divergenres (2021): Guide de grammaire neutre et inclusive. Québec. Online at: https://divergenres.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/guide-grammaireinclusive-final.pdf.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Becquelin, Hélène: Langage en tout genre. Argument historique. Université de Neuchâtel. Online at: https://www.unine.ch/epicene/home/pourquoi/argument-historique.html (12.12.2023).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Viennot, Eliane (2023): Pour un langage non sexiste ! Les accords égalitaires en français. Online at: https://www.elianeviennot.fr/Langue-accords.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 MOREAU, Marie-Louise. L’accord de proximité dans l’écriture inclusive. Peut-on utiliser n’importe quel argument ? In : Les discours de référence sur la langue française [en ligne]. Bruxelles : Presses de l’Université Saint-Louis, 2019 (généré le 12 décembre 2023). Disponible sur Internet : <http://books.openedition.org/pusl/26517>. ISBN : 9782802802457. DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pusl.26517.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Alchimy (2017): « Le masculin l’emporte sur le féminin » : Bien plus qu’une règle de grammaire. Usbek&Rica: "Selon Le Bon Usage de Maurice Grevisse, l'adjectif se met donc au 'genre indifférencié, c'est-à-dire au masculin'."
- ↑ Tibblin, J., Weijer, J. van de, Granfeldt, J., & Gygax, P. (2023). There are more women in joggeur·euses than in joggeurs : On the effects of gender-fair forms on perceived gender ratios in French role nouns. Journal of French Language Studies, 33, 28‑51. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269522000217.
- ↑ Heise, E. (2003). Auch einfühlsame Studenten sind Männer: Das generische Maskulinum und die mentale Repräsentation von Personen [Even empathic students are men: The generic masculine and the mental representation of persons]. Verhaltenstherapie & Psychosoziale Praxis, 35(2), 285–291.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 OMPI (2022): Guide de l’OMPI pour un langage inclusif en français. Genève. Online at: https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/women-and-ip/fr/docs/guidelines-inclusive-language.pdf.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ménard, Jean-Sébastien (2021): Pour un français neutre et une inclusion des personnes non binaires : une entrevue avec Florence Ashley. Longueuil. Online at:https://www.cegepmontpetit.ca/static/uploaded/Files/Cegep/Centre%20de%20reference/Le%20francais%20saffiche/Une-entrevue-avec-Florence-Ashley.pdf (12.12.2023), p. 13, p. 6.
- ↑ Pascal Gygax, Manon Boschard, Geoffrey Cornet, Magali Croci, Natasha Stegmann (2021): Les outils - la (re)féminisation. Langage inclusif. Online at: https://tube.switch.ch/videos/0xwYktNzRp, 00:50.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Université Laval (2021): Guide de rédaction inclusive. Online at: https://www.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/EDI/Guide_redaction_inclusive_DC_UL.pdf.
- ↑ EPFL (2023): L’accord de proximité. Online at:https://www.epfl.ch/about/equality/fr/langage-inclusif/guide/principes/accord/ (12.12.2023).
- ↑ Anglade, Joseph (1931): Grammaire élémentaire de l'ancien français. Paris: Armand Colin, 157-196. Online at: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Grammaire_%C3%A9l%C3%A9mentaire_de_l%E2%80%99ancien_fran%C3%A7ais/Chapitre_6.
- ↑ Marchello-Nizia Christiane. Le neutre et l'impersonnel. In: Linx, n°21, 1989. Genre et langage. Actes du colloque tenu à Paris X-Nanterre les 14-15-16 décembre 1988, sous la direction de Eliane Koskas et Danielle Leeman. 173-179. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/linx.1989.1139. Online at: www.persee.fr/doc/linx_0246-8743_1989_num_21_1_1139.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Florence Ashley (2019): Les personnes non-binaires en français : une perspective concernée et militante. In: H-France Salon 11(14), p. 6.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Alpheratz (2018): Genre neutre.TABLEAUX RÉCAPITULATIFS de mots de genre neutre (extraits). Online at: https://www.alpheratz.fr/linguistique/genre-neutre/.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 La vie en Queer (2018): Petit dico de français neutre/inclusif. Online at: https://lavieenqueer.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/petit-dico-de-francais-neutre-inclusif/.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Wiki Trans (2019): Comment parler d'une personne non binaire ? Online at: https://wikitrans.co/2019/12/25/comment-parler-dune-personne-non-binaire/.
- ↑ Radio Télévision Suisse (2021): L'entrée du pronom "iel" dans Le Robert provoque des remous. Online at: https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/12651159-lentree-du-pronom-iel-dans-le-robert-provoque-des-remous.html.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Michel Launey, Dominique Levet (2017): La catégorie de la personne. Maison des Sciences des l'Homme Paris Nord. Online at: https://web.ac-reims.fr/casnav/enfants_nouv_arrives/aide_a_la_scolarisation/LGIDF/LGIDF.LA%20PERSONNE.02.03.17.pdf.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Campbell, Lyle (1998): Historical Linguistics. An Introduction. First ed. Cambridge/Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
- ↑ Etienne Sicard, Anne Menin-Sicard, Gabriel Rousteau. Oppositions de voyelles orales et nasales : identification des formants selon le genre. INSA Toulouse. 2022. ffhal-03826558v2f.
- ↑ Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology, 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.
- ↑ Carvalho, Joaquim (Brandão de) (2023): “From binary features To elements: Implications for markedness theory and phonological acquisition”. In: Radical: A Journal of Phonology 3, 346-384. Here specifically: 352-353.
- ↑ Duolingo Wiki: Swedish Skills. Possessives. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.
- ↑ Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): 8 Grammar. Possessives. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.
- ↑ Klaudia Kolbe (2017): Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen. Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.
- ↑ Sean McGibney (2023): What Percentage of the World’s Population is Bilingual? Introduction to Bilingualism: Exploring the Global Language Diversity. Online at: https://www.newsdle.com/blog/world-population-bilingual-percentage.
- ↑ VAN DIJK C, VAN WONDEREN E, KOUTAMANIS E, KOOTSTRA GJ, DIJKSTRA T, UNSWORTH S. (2022): Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis. In: Journal of Child Language 5, :897-929. doi:10.1017/S0305000921000337.
- ↑ van Dijk C, Dijkstra T, Unsworth S. Cross-linguistic influence during online sentence processing in bilingual children (2022): In: Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 691-704. doi:10.1017/S1366728922000050.
- ↑ Doctoresse Joséphine Tornay. Online at: https://cm-latour.ch/team/josephine-tornay-medecine-interne-generale/. Very common Swiss French denomination for female doctors.
- ↑ Viennot, Eliane (2023): Pour un langage non sexiste ! Acteurice, visiteureuse... Des néologismes de plus en plus employés. Online at: https://www.elianeviennot.fr/Langue-mots.html.
- ↑ Brauer, M., and Landry, M. (2008): Un ministre peut-il tomber enceinte? L'impact du générique masculin sur les représentations mentales. In: L'Année Psychol. 108, 243-272. DOI: 10.4074/S0003503308002030.
- ↑ Xiao, H., Strickland, B., and Peperkamp, S. (2023): How fair is gender-fair language? Insights from gender ratio estimations in French. In: J. Lang. Soc. Psychol. 42, 82-106. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X221084643.
- ↑ Stahlberg, D., Sczesny, S., and Braun, F. (2001): Name your favorite musician: effects of masculine generics and of their alternatives in German. In: J. Lang. Soc. Psychol. 20, 464-469. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X01020004004.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Spinelli, Elsa/Chevrot, Jean-Pierre/Varnet, Léo (2023): Neutral is not fair enough: testing the efficiency of different language gender-fair strategies. In: Front. Psychol. 14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1256779.
- ↑ CNRTL (2012): -EUX, élément formant. Online at: https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/-eux.
- ↑ Bartsch, Renate (1987): Sprachnormen: Theorie und Praxis: Studienausgabe. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110935875,
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 Fischer, Roswitha (1998): Lexical Change in Present-Day English. A Corpus-Based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologism. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Online at: https://books.google.ch/books?id=H93nAVbwZwwC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ↑ Café aux étoiles. maison d'édition sereine et onirique (no data): Littérature. Online at: https://cafeauxetoiles.fr/litterature/.
- ↑ Les Ourses à plumes. Webzine féministe (2022): Les elfes noirs ne sont jamais noirs (1) : enjeux de la représentation dans les fictions de l'imaginaire. Online at: https://lesoursesaplumes.info/tag/une/.