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Non-binary pronoun provokes furore in France
From an article in the smh by Roger Cohen and Léontine Gallois
Read the full article here:Perhaps France was always going to have a hard time with nonbinary pronouns.
Its language, like others stemming from Latin, is intensely gender-specific and fiercely protected by august authorities. Still, the furore provoked by a prominent dictionary’s inclusion of the pronoun “iel” has been remarkably virulent.
French dictionary Le Petit Robert, rivalled only by the Larousse in linguistic authority, chose to add the gender-neutral merging of the masculine “il” (he) and the feminine “elle” (she) to its latest online edition.
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The Robert defines “iel” (pronounced roughly “yell”) as “a third person subject pronoun in the singular and plural used to evoke a person of any gender”.
For some time, a movement for “inclusive writing” has battled the linguistic establishment. It is broadly an attempt to wean the French language of its male bias. The Académie rebuffed such attempts earlier this year. Its secretary-in-perpetuity, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, said that inclusive writing, even if it seemed to bolster a movement against sexist discrimination, “is not only counterproductive for that cause but harmful to the practice and intelligibility of the French language”
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