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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions

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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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'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.
'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 words starting with vowels, since, in this context, masculine and feminine gender are syncretized.


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>
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>
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