Language activists are trying to make French gender-neutral

Source: The Economist | May 17, 2018 |

IN FRENCH, as in English, full stops traditionally belong at the end of sentences. But lately they have been invading the middle of words. Organisers of recent university sit-ins have called on étudiant.e.s (students) to join the blockades. Pressure groups urge their militant.e.s (activists) and adhérent.e.s (members) to take part in rallies. Normally, the forms of these nouns ending with “es” are feminine; those with just an “s” are masculine. The optional “e” between full stops attempts to make them unisex. It is all part of l’écriture inclusive, or inclusive writing—a defiant response to charges of French linguistic patriarchy.

As every student of French knows, the traditional rule is that “the masculine form takes precedence over the feminine”. So an adjective that refers jointly to masculine and feminine nouns—des garçons et des filles intelligents (clever boys and girls)—agrees only with the masculine one (adding just an “s” in the plural, not an “es”). This principle has long been implicit in the use of masculine nouns to cover feminine cases too. Un sénateur (senator) traditionally refers to both men and women who occupy the office.

Such practices vex feminists. A group of 314 teachers issued a public appeal a few months ago against a grammatical tradition that amounts to “the domination of one sex over the other” and makes women invisible. Eliane Viennot, who describes herself as a literature professeuse (professor), recalled that such rules were codified only in the 19th century. In 1480 Madeleine de France, Charles VII’s daughter, described herself as an autrice (female author). The pre-Napoleonic French language referred to a charpentière (female carpenter) or doctoresse (woman of letters). Indeed, Quebec recommended the use of feminised forms for job titles in 1979. Today, French advocates of gender-neutral language would also prefer the adjective to obey a rule of proximity, and agree with the gender of the nearest noun in a sentence. In the example above, this would lead to des garçons et des filles intelligentes.

……..

Tagged: ,

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • Discussion
  • Consistent June 5, 2018 at 10:41 am #23975

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.