Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Gender neutral version of French sparks backlash

Equality supporters believe grammatical gender of many words should be changed to neutral.  

Natasha Salmon
Saturday 07 October 2017 08:50 EDT
Comments
(Rex)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A new gender-neutral version of the French language has caused anger among purists.

A member of the prestigious Académie Française has hit back at the adaption, which looks to reduce the masculine domination of grammatical gender.

The French Academy is France’s 400-year-old voice of authority on language and its sole British member, Sir Michael Edwards, has deemed the gender neutral words “gibberish”.

Known as “écriture inclusive”, the written-style is quietly being adopted in academia and political life as well as being backed by the state equality commission.

As reported by The Times, the French government department responsible for equal rights said the masculine ending was a form of sexual tyranny.

Under standard rules, masculine trumps feminine in plurals, meaning that a man and a woman are described as “amis” a feminine “e” is added to create “amies” for two or more friends only when no men are included.

Mid punctuation is used in the new inclusive approach to split up words meaning the plural for all friends becomes “ami•e•s”.

The new written-only language is starting to be adopted in academia
The new written-only language is starting to be adopted in academia (People Images/istock)

L’écriture inclusive represents an attempt to turn the language into an inclusive, mixed-gender form to avoid offending women and gay and sexual minorities. It has offended swathes of traditionalists up and down the country, however.

President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party even produced a logo for its parliamentary group with the slogan: “Vos député•e•s en marche!”

A state body that promotes inclusion and equal rights, Le Haut Conseil à l’Égalité, said the “language reflects society and its way of thinking about the world”.

Next year keyboards will be created with a new key to type the mid point, which campaigners hope will be adopted universally.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in