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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions

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(possessive adjectives done)
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|san <small>[sã]/[san]</small>, sine <small>[sin]</small>
|san <small>[sã]/[san]</small>, sine <small>[sin]</small>
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'san' in the [sã] pronunciation is a homophone of 'sang', meaning blood. Alpheratz suggests 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic form. However, 'tu(n)' is a homophone of the subject pronoun 'tu', and <nowiki><u> — i. e. [y] — is a linguistically marked phone</nowiki><ref>Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: ''The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology'', 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>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.</ref>. Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', because only the roundness parameter distinguishes the original neologisms with [y] from the alternatively proposed neologisms with [i]. 'sine' is the only one having no optional '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si', meaning 'if'. Similar 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),<ref>Duolingo Wiki: ''Swedish Skills. Possessives''. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.</ref> in Norwegian,<ref>Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): ''8 Grammar. Possessives''. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.</ref>  in Swiss-German,<ref>Klaudia Kolbe (2017): ''Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen.'' Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.</ref>  and in other Germanic languages. Since 60% of of humans are multilingual<ref>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.</ref>, cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the remembrance and adoption of neologisms.<ref>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.</ref><ref>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.</ref>
'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 word starting with vowels, since 'ton' and 'mon' syncretize masculine and feminine gender in this context.
 
In the [sã] pronunciation, 'san' is a homophone of 'sang', i. e. 'blood'. Alpheratz suggests 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic form. However, 'tu(n)' is a homophone of the subject pronoun 'tu', and <nowiki><u> — i. e. [y] — is a linguistically marked phone</nowiki>.<ref>Rice, K. (2007). Markedness in phonology. In: ''The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology'', 79-98. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>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.</ref> 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),<ref>Duolingo Wiki: ''Swedish Skills. Possessives''. Online at:https://duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/Swedish_Skill:Possessives.</ref> in Norwegian,<ref>Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): ''8 Grammar. Possessives''. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar.</ref>  in Swiss-German,<ref>Klaudia Kolbe (2017): ''Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen.'' Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen.</ref>  and in other Germanic languages. Since 60% of of humans are multilingual,<ref>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.</ref> cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the remembrance and adoption of neologisms.<ref>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.</ref><ref>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.</ref>


==== Demonstrative adjective ====
==== Demonstrative adjective ====
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