Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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==== Subject pronouns ==== | ==== Subject pronouns ==== | ||
French only marks gender on the third person singular (cf. 'elle' and 'il'). Up to the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun 'el'/'al'.<ref>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.</ref> Today, 'el' cannot be recuperated from ancient French as it would be pronounced the same as 'elle', the current feminin subject pronoun. As for 'al', it sounds like 'elle' in spoken | French only marks gender on the third person singular (cf. 'elle' and 'il'). Up to the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun 'el'/'al'.<ref>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.</ref> Today, 'el' cannot be recuperated from ancient French as it would be pronounced the same as 'elle', the current feminin subject pronoun. As for 'al', it sounds like 'elle' in spoken Canadian French (Canada).<ref name=":5">Florence Ashley (2019): Les personnes non-binaires en français : une perspective concernée et militante. In: ''H-France Salon'' 11(14), p. 6.</ref> It could, however, be an interesting candidate for the rest of the francophone community.<ref name=":13">Alpheratz (2018): Genre neutre.TABLEAUX RÉCAPITULATIFS de mots de genre neutre (extraits). Online at: https://www.alpheratz.fr/linguistique/genre-neutre/.</ref> Nowadays, according to the ''Guide de rédaction inclusive'' (2021:14) from the Laval University,<ref name=":11">Université Laval (2021): Guide de rédaction inclusive. Online at: https://www.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/EDI/Guide_redaction_inclusive_DC_UL.pdf.</ref> the ''Guide de grammaire neutre et inclusive'' (2021:5) from Divergenres,<ref name=":0" /> the ''Petit dico de français neutre/inclusif'' (2018) from La vie en Queer,<ref name=":6">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/.</ref> and Wiki Trans (2019),<ref name=":7">Wiki Trans (2019): Comment parler d'une personne non binaire ? Online at: https://wikitrans.co/2019/12/25/comment-parler-dune-personne-non-binaire/.</ref> the most widespread subject (neo)pronoun is 'iel'. It was added 2021 to the grand dictionary Le Robert.<ref>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.</ref> Next to 'iel', Canadian French also uses 'ille'.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> In metropolitan France, the 'al' pronoun proposed by the linguist Alpheratz in their book ''Grammaire du français inclusif'' (2018) has gained some recognition. The following table presents the main gender neutral subject pronouns found in the French-speaking world. | ||
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The synthetic gender neutral forms where the silent consonant of the masculine form | 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 (cf. previous paragraph). | ||
==== Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form ==== | ==== Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form ==== | ||
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/a/ is sometimes pronounced as [ɔ] in | /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 ==== | ==== Endings with consonant X in the masculine and consonant X with phonetic change triggered by presence of final '-e' in the feminine ==== | ||