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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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In certain Swiss-French varieties, as in the canton of Vaud, masculine and feminine words ending in <é> resp. <ée> are pronounced differently (e. g., ''une employée'' [ynɑ̃plwaj<u>e:</u>]/[ynɑ̃plwaj<u>e:j</u>] vs. ''un employé'' [ɛ̃nɑ̃plwaj<u>e</u>]/[œ̃nɑ̃plwaj<u>e</u>]). However, this linguistically conservative pronunciation is becoming increasingly marginal: it is primarily confined to Switzerland and, in major cities and among younger generations, the pronunciation is gradually converging with the standard French norm, meaning that the distinction between /e/ and /e:/ (or /e:j/, remnant from [[wikipedia:Franco-Provençal|Franco-Provençal dialects]] spoken in the region before linguistic homogenization) is being [[wikipedia:Neutralization_(linguistics)|neutralized]], resulting in a single phoneme /e/ and causing ''employé'' and ''employée'' to be pronounced identically. As a result, here, these words are considered orally epicene. | In certain Swiss-French varieties, as in the canton of Vaud, masculine and feminine words ending in <é> resp. <ée> are pronounced differently (e. g., ''une employée'' [ynɑ̃plwaj<u>e:</u>]/[ynɑ̃plwaj<u>e:j</u>] vs. ''un employé'' [ɛ̃nɑ̃plwaj<u>e</u>]/[œ̃nɑ̃plwaj<u>e</u>]). However, this linguistically conservative pronunciation is becoming increasingly marginal: it is primarily confined to Switzerland and, in major cities and among younger generations, the pronunciation is gradually converging with the standard French norm, meaning that the distinction between /e/ and /e:/ (or /e:j/, remnant from [[wikipedia:Franco-Provençal|Franco-Provençal dialects]] spoken in the region before linguistic homogenization) is being [[wikipedia:Neutralization_(linguistics)|neutralized]], resulting in a single phoneme /e/ and causing ''employé'' and ''employée'' to be pronounced identically. As a result, here, these words are considered orally epicene. | ||
=== Monogender epicene nouns and collective | === Monogender epicene nouns and [[wikipedia:Collective_noun|collective nouns]] === | ||
The table below shows gendered language ([https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gender_in_German_MWerner.pdf ''Sexus''], i. e. natural sex or an individual's gender) on the left and gender-neutral language (''Genus'', i. e. [[wikipedia:Grammatical_gender|grammatical gender]]) on the right. | The table below shows gendered language ([https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gender_in_German_MWerner.pdf ''Sexus''], i. e. natural sex or an individual's gender) on the left and gender-neutral language (''Genus'', i. e. [[wikipedia:Grammatical_gender|grammatical gender]]) on the right. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+Collective | |+Collective nouns<ref name=":11" /> | ||
! | ![https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/gender-specific_noun.htm Gender-specific nouns] | ||
! | !Collective nouns | ||
|- | |- | ||
|'''Les auditrices et auditeurs''' sont attentifs. | |'''Les auditrices et auditeurs''' sont attentifs. | ||