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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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|<u>iel</u> | |<u>iel</u> | ||
|<u>lae</u> <small>[lae]</small><u>/lo/li/lu, (l')</u> | |<u>lae</u> <small>[lae]</small><u>/lo/li/lu/lia, (l')</u> | ||
|<u>lui</u> | |<u>lui</u> | ||
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The distinction between 'analytic gender neutral' ''versus'' 'synthetic gender neutral' is usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre'.<ref name=":0" /> 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 distinction between 'analytic gender neutral' ''versus'' 'synthetic gender neutral' is usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre'.<ref name=":0" /> 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 | The predominant neutral form between the analytic and the synthetic gender-neutral approach is denoted in italics in the table. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+ | |+ | ||
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!Indefinite article | !Indefinite article | ||
|un <small>[<u>œ̃</u>]</small> | |un <small>[<u>œ̃</u>]</small> | ||
|une <small>[ | |une <small>[y<u>n</u>]</small> | ||
|eune <small>[<u>œn</u>]</small> | |eune <small>[<u>œn</u>]</small> | ||
|''an'' <small>[ã]/[an]</small> | |''an'' <small>[ã]/[an]</small> | ||
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|''lo'', li, lu, lia | |''lo'', li, lu, lia | ||
|} | |} | ||
Although 'an' is quite common, | 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' [<u>œ</u>n], on the other hand, combines the vocal roundedness of 'un' [<u>œ̃</u>] 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.<ref>Etienne Sicard, Anne Menin-Sicard, Gabriel Rousteau. Oppositions de voyelles orales et nasales : identification des formants selon le genre. INSA Toulouse. 2022. ffhal-03826558v2f.</ref> 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 ==== | ==== Possessive adjectives ==== | ||