Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions

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For example, « Nous prions les <u>étudiantes</u> et (les) <u>étudiants</u> de remettre leur copie à la personne responsable ». Some people don't enjoy the repetition,<ref name=":10">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.</ref> others consider that the doublets don't encompass all genders,<ref name=":4">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.</ref> others again are unsure which form to mention first, since the order conveys information about the value the speaker gives to each item.<ref>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.</ref>

The feminine suffix is attached to the masculine, rather than the whole word being repeated (as in classical doublets).<ref name=":10" />

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For example, « <u>Les élèves</u> apprennent leur leçon. »; « <u>L'enfant</u> regarde la télévision. »; « <u>Les juges</u> 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.

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.

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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 agreement coexisted along with the masculine-over-feminine rule.<ref name=":2" /> For a long part of ancient French history, proximity agreement was even the most widespread way to make adjectives, past participles, etc. agree (cf. Anglade 1931:172).<ref>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.</ref> 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 français''e, 1647).<ref name=":1" />

==Neologisms==

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. In Laurentian French (Canada), 'al' sounds like 'elle' in spoken language.<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>Alpheratz (2018): Genre neutre.TABLEAUX RÉCAPITULATIFS de mots de genre neutre (extraits). Online at: https://www.alpheratz.fr/linguistique/genre-neutre/.</ref> Nevertheless, today, 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', Laurentian 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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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.<ref name=":8">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.</ref> Currently, there is no prevailing gender neutral clitic direct object personal pronoun; the most common ones are detailed below.

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The predominant neutral form, between the analytic and synthetic gender-neutral approach, is denoted in italics in the table. 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.