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/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 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 [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]

    'mon', 'ton' and 'son', generally masculine, function as feminin possessive adjectives when combined with a feminin noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Consequently, there is no necessity to use a possessive neoarticle in words starting with vowels, since, in this context, masculine and feminine gender are syncretized.

    In the [sã] pronunciation, 'san' is a homophone of 'sang', i. e. 'blood'. Alpheratz suggests 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'[16] as synthetic form. 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', because only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms with. 'sine' would be the only one having no 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. Since 60% of of humans are multilingual,[28] cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the remembrance 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 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.

    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

    There is currently no fixed definite article and possessive pronoun combination: in this table, 'lae' is simply associated with 'mienn' for morphological reasons: both words belong to the analytic gender neutral forms; the same goes for 'lo' and 'miem', that are both synthetic forms.

    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'

    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. 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.

    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

    Endings from latin '-ōsus'[37]
    masculine feminine analytic gender neutral synthetic gender neutral
    -eux/-euse amoureux amoureuse amoureuxe [amuʁøks]
    -eux/-esse dieu déesse dieuesse dieuxe
    Endings with '-x' (♂︎) and '-[s]' (♀︎)
    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 gets pronounced allows for the conserving of the same number of syllable. They having an audible suffix, as the feminine forms do, without that suffix being the feminine one 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 could relieve memorization issues in alphabetized 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
    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 in the masculine and audible consonant in the feminine

    Endings with silent (♂︎) and audible consonant (♀︎)
    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

    Endings with a rounded vowel (♂︎) and '-_(l)le' (♀︎)
    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
    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 héroan [eʁoã]/[eʁoan], héroal
    👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 frère sœur frœur, srère adelphe
    👱🏿 Monsieur Madame Monestre

    Discussion

    How new words enter the usage

    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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ Etienne Sicard, Anne Menin-Sicard, Gabriel Rousteau. Oppositions de voyelles orales et nasales : identification des formants selon le genre. INSA Toulouse. 2022. ffhal-03826558v2f.
    23. ↑ Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology, 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.
    24. ↑ 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.
    25. ↑ Duolingo Wiki: Swedish Skills. Possessives. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.
    26. ↑ Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): 8 Grammar. Possessives. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.
    27. ↑ Klaudia Kolbe (2017): Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen. Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.
    28. ↑ 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.
    29. ↑ 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.
    30. ↑ 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.
    31. ↑ Doctoresse Joséphine Tornay. Online at: https://cm-latour.ch/team/josephine-tornay-medecine-interne-generale/. Very common Swiss French denomination for female doctors.
    32. ↑ 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.
    33. ↑ 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.
    34. ↑ 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.
    35. ↑ 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. ↑ 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.
    37. ↑ CNRTL (2012): -EUX, élément formant. Online at: https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/-eux.
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