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[2] and linguistic[3], as the French language was being standardized and dialect speakers had 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,[4][5] even though the French prescriptive grammar considers it as such.[6] 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,[7] others consider that the doublets don't encompass all genders;[8] others again are unsure which form to pronounce first, since the order conveys information about the value the speaker gives to each word.[9]
    • Shortened doublets:[8] The feminine suffix is attached to the masculine, rather than the whole word being repeated (as in classical doublets).[1]
    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:[1] The table below shows gendered language on the left and neutral (i.e. grammatical gender that has nothing to do with biological sex or social identity) inclusive language on the right.
    Impersonal formulations
    Gendered inclusive language Neutral inclusive 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
    Marked 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:[10] Up to the 18th century, in adjectives and past participles, the masculine gender didn't prevail over the feminine gender in cases where the genders could theoretically be congruent: proximity agreement prevailed.[3] This congruency allows for equality between grammatical genders instead of the masculine-over-feminine hierarchy that was decided 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).[6]
      • « Le genre masculin est réputé plus noble que le féminin à cause de la supériorité du mâle sur la femelle » (Beauzée 1767).[6]
    Masculine prevails over feminine 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

    • Subject pronouns: French only marks gender on the third person singular ("elle" and "il"). Up to the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun "el"/"al".[11] Today, "el" cannot be recuperated from ancient French as it would be pronounced the same as "elle", the current feminin subject pronoun. In Laurentian French (Canada), "al" sounds like "elle" in spoken language.[12] It could, however, be an interesting candidate for the rest of the francophone community.[13] Nevertheless, today, according to the Guide de rédaction inclusive (2021:14) from the Laval University,[14] 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,[15] and Wiki Trans (2019),[16] the most widespread subject (neo)pronoun is "iel". It was added 2021 to the grand dictionary Le Robert.[17] Next to "iel" Laurentian French also uses "ille".[1][12] In metropolitan France, the "al" pronoun suggested 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 iel ille al
    Peripheral ol ul ael
    • Clitic and tonic pronouns: French distinguishes between clitic and tonic pronouns. A clitic is a word that attaches to another word to form a prosodic unit with it, lacking prosodic as well as distributional autonomy.[18] 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
    je me me
    tu te te
    il le, (l') lui
    elle la, (l') lui
    iel lae/lo/li/lu, (l') lui
    on nous nous
    nous nous nous
    vous nous nous
    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.[18] There are currently two competing systems:[16][15] one consists in syncretizing clitic and tonic pronouns (cf. analogical levelling),[19] 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, supports differentiating clitics (cf. analogical extension)[19] from tonic pronouns, thereby aligning with the paradigm of "il".

    Analogical extension
    clitic subject pronoun tonic pronoun
    je moi
    tu toi
    il lui
    elle elle
    iel ellui
    on nous
    nous nous
    vous vous
    ils eux
    elles elles
    iels elleux

    References

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 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 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.
    4. ↑ 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.
    5. ↑ 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.
    6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 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'."
    7. ↑ 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 (12.12.2023), p. 7.
    8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 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.
    9. ↑ 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.
    10. ↑ EPFL (2023): L’accord de proximité. Online at:https://www.epfl.ch/about/equality/fr/langage-inclusif/guide/principes/accord/ (12.12.2023).
    11. ↑ 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.
    12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Florence Ashley (2019): Les personnes non-binaires en français : une perspective concernée et militante. In: H-France Salon 11(14), p. 6.
    13. ↑ Alpheratz (2018): Genre neutre.TABLEAUX RÉCAPITULATIFS de mots de genre neutre (extraits). Online at: https://www.alpheratz.fr/linguistique/genre-neutre/.
    14. ↑ Université Laval (2021): Guide de rédaction inclusive. Online at: https://www.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/EDI/Guide_redaction_inclusive_DC_UL.pdf.
    15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 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/.
    16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Wiki Trans (2019): Comment parler d'une personne non binaire ? Online at: https://wikitrans.co/2019/12/25/comment-parler-dune-personne-non-binaire/.
    17. ↑ 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.
    18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 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.
    19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Campbell, Lyle (1998): Historical Linguistics. An Introduction. First ed. Cambridge/Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
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