Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions

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    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.
    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.
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    La vie en Queer suggests 'cet', which's pronunciation is the same as that of the feminine form 'cette'; Divergenres retains 'cèx', mentioning that it unfortunately sounds like the word 'sexe'. A third possibility that has arisen from some nouns and adjectives (see below) consists in voicing — for instance [t] turns to [d] — or devoicing —[g] becomes [k], for example — the final feminin consonantal suffix of the word, so that the word remains easily recognizable while being distinct from the masculine and from the feminine. This approach would have the advantage of keeping the misunderstandings and the memorization at a minimum.
    La vie en Queer suggests 'cet', which's pronunciation is the same as that of the feminine form 'cette'; Divergenres retains 'cèx', mentioning that it sounds like the word 'sexe'. A third possibility consists in voicing — for instance [t] turns to [d] — or devoicing —[g] becomes [k], for example — the final feminin consonantal suffix of the word, so that the word remains easily recognizable while being distinct both from the masculine and the feminine. This approach would have the advantage of keeping the misunderstandings and the memorization effort at a minimum.


    === Non personal pronouns ===
    === Non personal pronouns ===


    ==== Possessive pronouns ====
    ==== Possessive pronouns ====
    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.
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    |connarde
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    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''. Apart from the italic denoted forms, most of the words depicted in the table are not in use. The table thus merely represents suggestions that have been made for neutralizing French, and features the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world.
    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.
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