Gender neutral language in French

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Gender neutral language

Like all Romance languages, French has many gendered markers in nouns and adjectives. This page explains the different strategies that are used to be as neutral as possible with this language.

Non neologisms

Refeminization[1]

Before the 17th century, French had — as Italian, Spanish, and other Romance languages still have today — a feminine inflection for female professionals. However, for several reasons (both societal, i.e., misogynistic[2][3] and linguistic[4], as the French language was being standardized and dialect speakers were expected to learn French), grammarians made sure that the feminine denominations vanished from the language.[2] Today, a lot of people talk of 'feminization', because they feel like these occupational titles are neologisms. However, they actually aren't, since they are being recovered from an older version of the French language, which is why 'refeminization' is more accurate. Even though it sounds counter-intuitive, refeminization is part of a process to degenderize the French language, since studies from different languages have shown that the generic masculine is cognitively not neutral,[5][6] even though the French prescriptive grammar considers it as such.[7] By mentioning also the feminine form of a word, speakers visualize people 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 example, « Les élèves apprennent leur leçon. »; « L'enfant regarde la télévision. »; « Les juges ont pris leur décision. ». Since singular articles mark gender ('la' and 'le'), this functions best with plural forms. It works with singular forms if the noun starts with a vowel, because the article automatically turns into 'l'...', which doesn't mark gender. A downside is that there aren't 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.

Impersonal formulations
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.
Grammatically fixed gender nouns
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 to the 18th century, in adjectives and past participles, the masculine gender didn't necessarily prevail over the feminine in cases where the genders could theoretically be congruent: proximity and free-choice agreement coexisted along with the masculine-over-feminine rule.[3][4] For a long part of ancient French history, proximity agreement was the most widespread way to make adjectives, past participles, etc. agree (cf. Anglade 1931:172).[13] Today, this agreement could allow for equality between grammatical genders instead of the masculine-over-feminine hierarchy that was suggested in the 17th and 18th century by the French grammarians 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).[7]
  • « Le genre masculin est réputé plus noble que le féminin à cause de la supériorité du mâle sur la femelle. » (Beauzée 1767).[7]
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 marks gender on the third person singular (cf. 'elle' and 'il'). Up to the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun 'el'/'al'.[14] 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 Laurentian French (Canada).[15] It could, however, be an interesting candidate 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 widespread subject (neo)pronoun is 'iel'. It was added 2021 to the grand dictionary Le Robert.[19] Next to 'iel', Laurentian French also uses 'ille'.[1][15] 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.

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.

Clitic pronouns
Subject Direct object Indirect object
il le, (l') lui
elle la, (l') lui
iel lae [lae]/lo/li/lu, (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 isn't 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'.

Analogical extension
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.

Masculine Feminine Analytic gender neutral Synthetic gender neutral
Indefinite article un une an [ã]/[an], eune [øn]
Definite article le la lae [lae], lea [ləa] lo, li, lu, lia

Possessive adjectives

Masculine Feminine Analytic gender neutral Synthetic gender neutral
1SG mon ma maon [maõ] man [mã]/[man], mi
2SG ton ta taon [taõ] tan [tã]/[tan], ti
3SG son sa saon [saõ] san [sã]/[san], sine [sin]

Demonstrative adjective

Masculine Feminine Analytic gender neutral Synthetic gender neutral Plural
ce/cet cette cèd ces

Non personal 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.

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

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]

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.

masculine feminine analytic gender neutral synthetic gender neutral
Endings from Latin '-or' and '-rix'
-eur/-euse enquêteur enquêteuse enquêteureuse enquêtaire
-eur/-rice acteur actrice acteurice actaire
-eur/-_resse1 docteur doctoresse[22] docteuresse doctaire
-eur/-_resse2 enchanteur enchanteresse enchanteuresse enchantaire
-e/-esse maître maîtresse maîtré/maîtrè (or maîtræ) maîtrexe
-ard/-asse connard connasse connarde
Endings from latin '-ōsus'[23]
-eux/-euse amoureux amoureuse amoureuxe [amuʁøks]
-eux/-esse dieuxe déesse dieuesse dieuxe
Endings with '-x' (♂︎) and '-[s]' (♀︎)
-x/-sse roux rousse rouxe
-x/-ce doux douce douxe
Endings with nasal vowels in the masculine form
-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] mignonne [miɲõn] mignan
Endings with silent consonant (♂︎) and audible consonant (♀︎)
-t/-te pâlot pâlotte pâlode, pâlat, pâlasse
-d/-de grand grande grante, granxe, gransse
-iet/iète inquiet inquiète inquiède
-g/gue oblong oblongue oblonk
-c/-che blanc blanche blank
-er/-ière premier [pʁəmje] première [pʁəmjɛʁ] premiérère, premiér [pʁəmj]
-s/-se antillais antillaise antillaisse
-s/-che frais fraîche fraisse
-s/-sse bas basse base
Endings with a rounded vowel (♂︎) and '-_(l)le' (♀︎)
-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
Endings with consonant   (♂︎) and consonant   with phonetic change triggered by presence of final "-e" (♀︎)
-c/-che sec sèche seckèche
-f/-ve naïf naïve naïfive
Some examples of gender neutral nouns from irregular substantives
👑 roi reine roine
🦸🏽‍♂️ héros héroïne héroïnos héroane, héroal
👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 frère sœur frœur, srère adelphe
👱🏿 Monsieur Madame Monestre

Discussion

The analytic gender neutral forms that originate from Latin '-or' and '-rix' are currently in use,[24] 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.

Regarding the neoforms created with the '-aire' suffix (avantages et désavantages par rapport à '-eureuse').

How new words enter the usage

Other ressources

References

  1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 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'."
  8. 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. 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.
  10. 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. 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.
  12. EPFL (2023): L’accord de proximité. Online at:https://www.epfl.ch/about/equality/fr/langage-inclusif/guide/principes/accord/ (12.12.2023).
  13. 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.
  14. 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. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Florence Ashley (2019): Les personnes non-binaires en français : une perspective concernée et militante. In: H-France Salon 11(14), p. 6.
  16. Alpheratz (2018): Genre neutre.TABLEAUX RÉCAPITULATIFS de mots de genre neutre (extraits). Online at: https://www.alpheratz.fr/linguistique/genre-neutre/.
  17. 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. 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/.
  19. 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. 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. 21.0 21.1 Campbell, Lyle (1998): Historical Linguistics. An Introduction. First ed. Cambridge/Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
  22. Doctoresse Joséphine Tornay. Online at: https://cm-latour.ch/team/josephine-tornay-medecine-interne-generale/. Very common Swiss French denomination for female doctors.
  23. CNRTL (2012): -EUX, élément formant. Online at: https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/-eux.
  24. 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.