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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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→Possessive adjectives: added a table for speakers of Germanic languages
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Accordingly, regarding the morphing resp. non-morphing of the definite article with the prepositions 'de' and 'à', we'd have 'à lae' and 'de lae'. | Accordingly, regarding the morphing resp. non-morphing of the definite article with the prepositions 'de' and 'à', we'd have 'à lae' and 'de lae'. | ||
==== | ====Possessives ==== | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
! | ! | ||
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|ma | |ma | ||
|''maon'' <small>[maõ]</small> | |''maon'' <small>[maõ]</small> | ||
|''man'' <small>[mɑ̃]/[man]</small>, mo, mi(ne), mian <small>[mjɑ̃]</small> | |''man'' <small>[mɑ̃]/[man]</small>, mo, mi(ne), la/le mian <small>[mjɑ̃]</small> | ||
|- | |- | ||
!2SG | !2SG | ||
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The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context. | The possessive adjectives 'mon', 'ton', and 'son', which are generally masculine, are also used as feminine possessive adjectives when combined with a feminine noun that begins (phonetically) with a vowel: 'mon amie', 'ton employée', 'son hôtesse', etc. Therefore, there is no need to use a possessive neologism in words starting with vowels, as the masculine and feminine gender are syncretized in this context. | ||
The pronunciation [sɑ̃] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic forms. 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. 10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>Carvalho, J. (2023): From binary features to elements: Implications for markedness theory and phonological acquisition. In: ''Radical: A Journal of Phonology'' ''3'', 346–384.</ref> Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms suggested by Alpheratz. 'si(ne)' could be pronounced with an '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si' (i. e. 'if'). Similar-sounding | The pronunciation [sɑ̃] of 'san' is a homophone of 'sang' ('blood'). Alpheratz proposes 'mu(n)', 'tu(n)', 'su(n)'<ref name=":13" /> as synthetic forms. 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. 10.1017/cbo9780511486371.005.</ref><ref>Carvalho, J. (2023): From binary features to elements: Implications for markedness theory and phonological acquisition. In: ''Radical: A Journal of Phonology'' ''3'', 346–384.</ref> Alternative forms could be 'mi(ne)', 'ti(ne)', 'sine', as only the roundness parameter (cf. [y] and [i] in the IPA) distinguishes them from the original neologisms suggested by Alpheratz. 'si(ne)' could be pronounced with an '-ne' ending to avoid homophony with 'si' (i. e. 'if'). Similar-sounding possessives 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 (18.12.2023).</ref> in Norwegian,<ref>Norwegian University of Science and Technology (no data): ''8 Grammar. Possessives''. Online at: https://www.ntnu.edu/now/8/grammar (retrieved 18.12.2023).</ref> in Swiss-German,<ref>Klaudia, K. (2017): ''Schweizerdeutsch. Schlüssel zu den Übungen.'' Online at: https://silo.tips/download/schweizerdeutsch-schlssel-zu-den-bungen (retrieved 18.12.2023).</ref> and in other Germanic languages. As 60% of of humans are multilingual,<ref>McGibney, S. (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 (retrieved 18.12.2023).</ref> cross-linguistic influence could be used to facilitate the memorization and adoption of neologisms.<ref>Van Dijk, C./Van Wonderen, E./Koutamanis, E./Kootstra, G.J./Dijkstra, T./Unsworth, S. (2022): Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis. In: ''J. Child Lang.'' ''49'', 897–929. 10.1017/S0305000921000337.</ref><ref>Van Dijk, C./Dijkstra, T./Unsworth, S. (2022): Cross-linguistic influence during online sentence processing in bilingual children. In: ''Bilingualism'' ''25'', 691–704. 10.1017/S1366728922000050.</ref> | ||
Nota bene: Germanic languages encode the gender of the possessor in their third person singular — Romance languages do not. Only the gender of the possessed object is marked through flexion. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|+Grammatical note on English versus French possessives | |||
!English | |||
!French | |||
!''Genus'' of possessed object | |||
|- | |||
|That's '''her''' bike. That's '''hers'''. | |||
|C'est '''son''' vélo. C'est '''le sien'''. | |||
|le vélo (masculine) | |||
|- | |||
|That's '''her''' car. That's '''hers'''. | |||
|C'est '''sa''' voiture. C'est '''la sienne'''. | |||
|la voiture (feminine) | |||
|- | |||
|That's '''his''' cake. That's '''his'''. | |||
|C'est '''son''' gâteau. C'est '''le sien'''. | |||
|le gâteau (masculine) | |||
|- | |||
|That's '''his''' watch. That's '''his'''. | |||
|C'est '''sa''' montre. C'est '''la sienne'''. | |||
|la montre (feminine) | |||
|- | |||
|That's Avery. '''Their'''[sing.] favorite dish is pizza. It's '''theirs'''. | |||
|Ça, c'est Avery. '''Son''' plat préféré, c'est la pizza. C'est '''le sien'''. | |||
|le plat (masculine) | |||
|- | |||
|That's Avery. '''Their'''[sing.] house is green. It's '''theirs'''. | |||
|Ça, c'est Avery. '''Sa''' maison est verte. C'est '''la sienne'''. | |||
|la maison (feminine) | |||
|} | |||
====Demonstrative adjective==== | ====Demonstrative adjective==== | ||