Gender neutral language in French

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Gender neutral language

Nowadays, French knows only two genders: feminine and masculine. Activists have started seeking for solutions to degender the language as much as possible and, therefore, make it more inclusive. These solutions entail neologisms as well as non neologisms. Here we present the still ongoing quest for (grammatical) gender inclusivity in the French language.

Non neologisms

Refeminization[1]

Prior to the 17th century, French, like Italian, Spanish, and other Romance languages, utilized feminine inflections to distinguish female professionals. However, for a range of reasons — both societal, such as misogyny,[2][3] and linguistic[4], as French was being standardized and dialect speakers were expected to learn French — grammarians ensured that these feminine designations were effectively removed from the language.[2] Today, many people refer to this as 'feminization,' believing that these occupational titles are newly coined terms. However, this is not the case, as they are being revived from an earlier iteration of the French language, making 'refeminization' a more accurate term. Even though it seems paradoxical, refeminization is part of a movement to degender the French language, as studies in various languages have demonstrated that the generic masculine, despite being considered gender-neutral by French prescriptive grammar,[5] is not actually cognitively neutral.[6][7] By incorporating the feminine form of a word, speakers acknowledge the presence of individuals 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 instance, « Les élèves apprennent leur leçon. »; « L'enfant regarde la télévision. »; « Les juges ont pris leur décision. ». As singular articles indicate gender ('la' and 'le'), this technique works best with plural forms. However, it also works with singular forms if the noun begins with a vowel, because the article automatically becomes "l'...," which does not express gender. A drawback is that there are not 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 until the 18th century, the masculine gender did not always take precedence over the feminine in instances where the genders could theoretically be congruent: proximity and free-choice agreement coexisted alongside the masculine-over-feminine rule.[3][4] For a significant portion of Old French history, proximity agreement was the most prevalent method for agreeing adjectives, past participles, etc. (cf. Anglade 1931:172).[13] Today, this agreement could facilitate gender equality in grammar instead of the masculine-over-feminine hierarchy that was suggested in the 17th and 18th century by French grammarians such as 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).[5]

« Le genre masculin est réputé plus noble que le féminin à cause de la supériorité du mâle sur la femelle. » (Beauzée 1767).[5]

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 distinguishes gender in the third-person singular (cf. 'elle' and 'il'). Up until the 12th century, French knew the neutral subject pronoun 'el'/'al'.[14] Today, 'el' cannot be reintroduced from Old French as it would sound identical to 'elle', the current feminin subject pronoun. As for 'al', it sounds like 'elle' in spoken Canadian French.[15] It could, however, still be a viable option 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 widely adopted subject (neo)pronoun is 'iel'. It was added to the prestigious dictionary Le Robert in 2021.[19] Alongside 'iel', Canadian French also uses 'ille'.[1][15] In metropolitan France, the pronoun 'al', proposed by linguist Alpheratz in their book Grammaire du français inclusif (2018) has gained some recognition. The table below presents the primary 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 is not 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. 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.

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]

The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context.

The pronunciation [sã] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'[16] as synthetic forms. 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', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms from Alpheratz. 'sine' would be the only one without an 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. As 60% of of humans are multilingual,[28] cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the memorization 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 proposes 'cet', which sounds the same as that of the feminine form 'cette'; Divergenres retains 'cèx', but notes that it sounds like the word 'sexe'. A third possibility is to voice or to devoice the final consonant of the feminine word, for instance turning [t] to [d] or [g] to [k]. This would allow the word to remain easily recognizable while being distinct from both the masculine and the feminine forms. This approach has the advantage of minimizing misunderstandings and memorization effort.

Non personal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

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

Currently, there is no established combination of definite article and possessive pronoun. In this table, the definite article "lae" is simply paired with the possessive pronoun "mienn" for morphological reasons, as both words are of the analytic gender-neutral type. This also applies to the definite article "lo" and the possessive pronoun "miem", both of which are of the synthetic type.

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]

The indefinite pronoun 'quelqu'une' is extremely rare in modern French and its pendant 'quelqu'un' not necessarily perceived as masculine, thus it is not clear how essential the degendering of this 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 derived from words that originate from Latin '-or' and '-rix' are already being used,[32] although they have not been officially recognized by 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 preserving the original syllable number of the word, making them less cumbersome than analytic forms. Moreover, the '-aire' suffix does already exist in contemporary French, forming epicene nouns like '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 specifically, 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 in which the silent consonant of the masculine form becomes audible mantain the same number of syllables. They have an audible suffix, like the feminine forms do, without that suffix being the same as the feminine. This places them between the feminine and the masculine forms. Additionally, the fact that the audible consonant in gender-neutral form matches the consonant in the masculine suffix facilitates memorization for literate French speakers. However, in cases where the masculine does not contain a silent <x> and the feminine has a distinctive suffix, such as with 'dieu, déesse', adopting the analytic approach may be more consistent in terms of spelling and inclusivity (see 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. However, its use in monosyllabic words like 'brun·e' may hinder comprehension, which could explain why 'bran', a form that preserves the nasality of the final vowel while only changing its place of articulation, is more widespread. Words with a '-ien/-ienne' (and obviously also '-ain/-aine') suffix cannot form a synthetic gender-neutral form with '-aine', as this would result in a word pronounced exactly the 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 distinguishable from the original one, since the vowels implied are oral and not nasal, and can therefore be less easily mistaken for mispronunciations — while 'écrivan', 'citoyan' and 'bran' could be (for more information, see the Indefinite and definite article subchapter).

Endings with silent consonant X in the masculine and audible consonant X 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 [pʁəmj]
-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 demonstrates, no approach has achieved widespread acceptance among this category of nouns and adjectives. As discussed in the Demonstrative adjective-subchapter, one intuitive approach to creating a gender-neutral form involves voicing or devoicing the silent consonant of the masculine form while making it audible in the neologism. However, masculine words ending in a silent <s> pose a challenge: when put in the feminine form, the <s> can either become a voiced sibilant [z] or a voiceless sibilant [s] (the outcome [ʃ] is irrelevant in this issue). This inconsistency means that the silent <s> of the masculine form can represent either a voiced or a voiceless sound. While the silent consonants of other words can simply be transformed into their voiceless counterparts to differentiate them from the feminine, creating gender-neutral forms from words like "antillais·e" and "bas·e" requires more careful consideration. If the feminine form is pronounced with a [s], the pronunciation of the gender-neutral form must be [z] to avoid homophony; conversely, if the feminine form is pronounced [z], the gender-neutral form's pronunciation must be [s] to maintain distinctiveness.

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

The pronunciation of /a/ as [ɔ] in Canadian French can lead to ambiguity in gender-neutral forms like "spéciaules," as they could be interpreted as the feminine singular and plural, or 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

Masculine consonant X and feminin consonant X modified by '-e'
Masculine Feminine Analytic gender-neutral Synthetic gender-neutral
-c/-che sec sèche seckèche, sèchec
-f/-ve naïf naïve naïfive, naïvif

Florence Ashley argues that the order in which the feminine and masculine morphemes are combined does not matter.[15] Usage, intelligibleness and personal preference ultimately determine which forms will gain traction. However, the prosodic sequencing of syllables in French can impact intelligibility. For instance, the pronunciation of 'naïvif' (neutral form) as [na'i'vif], contrary to 'naïfive', makes appear the word 'vif' (i. e. 'vivacious') and can thus lead to confusion.

Some gender-neutral nouns from irregular substantives

Irregular substantives
Masculine Feminine Analytic gender-neutral Synthetic gender-neutral
roi reine roine
héros héroïne héroïnos héroan [eʁoã]/[eʁoan], héroal
frère sœur frœur, srère adelphe
Monsieur Madame Monestre

Illustrative narrative text with neologisms

The forms that a primarily depicted here are analytical, as they have been shown to be cognitively more inclusive than some synthetic ones. Additionally, neologisms that are easier to pronounce and cross-linguistically relevant are more used than other ones.

"Lae maîtré accueillent les enfants et leur demande de prendre place. La leçon du jour concerne les métiers. L’instituteurice interroge les élèves sur leurs souhaits professionnels et les professions exercées par les membres de leur famille. An élève dans la deuxième rangée prend la parole :

  • Plus tard, j’aimerais travailler en tant qu’infirmiér ou chirurgienn, parce que mi frœur aîné·e, Amel, est an brillande médecin à l’hôpital de Lyon et que je l’admire beaucoup. Malheureusement, iel est très occupé·e en ce moment et je ne peux lae voir et passer du temps avec ellui que le week-end.

An autre élève réagit :

  • Quand j’étais à l’hôpital parce qu’il y avait un problème avec mon glucomètre, lae docteuresse qui s’est occupé·e de moi m’a dit qu’iel s’appelait Amel ! Est-ce que ton adelphe est rouxe, par hasard ?
  • Non, iel est pas rouxe, mais iel se teint régulièrement les cheveux avec du henné !
  • Alors je connais ti frœur ! Moi, quand je serai grante, j’aimerais m’occuper aussi bien des autres que le fait Amel. J’aimerais devenir éducateurice spécialisé·e.
  • Moi aussi j’adore aider les autres ! Souvent, le matin, j’aide mi jumeaulle à s’habiller, à préparer sa récré et à mettre ses chaussures, parce qu’iel a un chromosome de plus que moi alors certaines choses sont moins faciles pour ellui. Il faut être patiende et très douxe parce qu’iel fait pas ça exprès ! J’écrirai des livres sur ce dont les personnes qui réfléchissent différemment ont besoin et je découvrirai pourquoi elles pensent comme ça : du coup, quand je serai vieuille, je serai écrivainn-chercheureuse.
  • Comment ça, quand tu seras vieilleux ? Tu crois que tu vas commencer à travailler quand ?
  • Je sais pas, quand je serai adulte, quand je serai vieuille quoi.
  • Ce que tu es mignonn de penser que je suis vieilleux, moi.
  • (ricanements)
  • Moi, je suis un peu inquiède parce que je sais pas ce que je voudrais être plus tard.
  • Peut-être tes camarades peuvent te donner des idées.
  • Je peux te raconter ce que fait mi cousaine, Anh : comme iel adore les animaux, iel est devenu·e paysann, comme ça iel peut les caresser tous les jours !
  • Mi voisinn, à moi, iel est enseignande de Yoruba, parfois iel donne même des cours à domicile.
  • Mais, ti voisan, je lae connais, iel est anglaisse, iel peut pas enseigner le Yoruba.
  • Bien sûr qu’iel peut ! Tu as pas besoin d’avoir une nationalité spécifique pour savoir une langue ! La preuve, moi je suis allemante et italienn, mais je parle que français.
  • On a discuté de beaucoup de métiers dans le monde du social. Est-ce que vous connaissez des gens dans des domaines plus techniques ?
  • Oui, mi paman, par exemple, iel travaille en tant qu’ingénieureuse de logiciel. Parfois, iel est de piquet et, ces soirs-là, quand quelque chose tombe en panne, iel devient toude blank et se précipite sur son ordinateur pour réparer le problème. Mapa dit toujours que je dois pas rire de Paman, dans ces moments, mais j’arrive pas à me retenir, la tête qu’iel fait est trop drôle.
  • Et ti paman, iel fait quoi ?
  • Ellui, iel est politicienn : iel vérifie que vous continuez à toustes vous comporter en bonns citoyenns !
  • Tu es bien naïfive si tu penses qu’en général on se comporte en bonns citoyans !
  • Moi j'ai pas pu parler encore.
  • Vas-y, Ezra, on t'écoute.
  • Mi tancle, iel est championn de para hockey.
  • C'est pas un métier, ça.
  • Oh que si ! Iel s'entraîne dur tous les jours, d'ailleurs sine entraîneureuse est très fier·e d'ellui parce qu'iel est an capitainn si engagé·e que son équipe est régulièrement sélectionnée pour les Jeux Paralympiques. Moi, plus tard, j'aimerais aussi être an sportifive de haut niveau, comme ellui."

Discussion

According to linguist Roswitha Fischer, citing Renate Bartsch,[38] the adoption of neologisms into a language's lexicon depends on three factors:

  1. Prestige: The neologism must be championed by a group of influential individuals who hold social, political, and economic power.
  2. Written Usage: The neologism must gain traction in written communication, becoming widely accepted in literature, media, and formal communication.
  3. Linguistic Contact: The neologism must circulate in areas where multiple dialects and varieties of the language converge, fostering mutual understanding and assimilation.[39]

Currently, gender-neutral French neologisms lack widespread adoption, even within LGBT and nonbinary communities. Their presence is low in written form,[40][41] and their usage in spoken language limited. However, the Internet serves as a platform for these neologisms to reach a global audience of francophone speakers from Africa, America, Europe, and minority language communities all around the world. Additionally, descriptive approaches to language (cf. Le Robert), contrary to prescriptive approaches (cf. L'Académie), have lead to the acceptance of one of them, 'iel', in written discourse.

For neologisms to gain wider adoption, they must be learnable and user-friendly. This means they should be easy to understand and easy to remember due to morphological linguistic motivation, easy to pronounce while adhering to the phoneme inventory and phonotactics of the language, familiar to the target audience, and responsive to a genuine need.[39] If these criteria are met, neologisms will start being adopted by avant-garde language users. As these avant-garde figures gather large online communities, the frequency of usage of these neologisms will increase, fostering familiarity among the francophone community. From then, some of these neologisms could potentially enter the standard vocabulary.

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. 5.0 5.1 5.2 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'."
  6. 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.
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  31. Doctoresse Joséphine Tornay. Online at: https://cm-latour.ch/team/josephine-tornay-medecine-interne-generale/. Very common Swiss French denomination for female doctors.
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  37. CNRTL (2012): -EUX, élément formant. Online at: https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/-eux.
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  41. Les Ourses à plumes. Webzine féministe (2022): Les elfes noirs ne sont jamais noirs (1) : enjeux de la représentation dans les fictions de l'imaginaire. Online at: https://lesoursesaplumes.info/tag/une/.