Everyone knows it, or feels it: languages are the expression of a sensitivity, of a certain relationship to the world, of a particular outlook on life. In this, they are a treasure for all humanity.
However, France allows its exceptional linguistic wealth to sink into general indifference. If nothing is done, most of our so-called “regional” languages will have disappeared by the end of the century, according to Unesco. As for our national idiom, it is certainly not threatened, but it is often abused, in particular by our collective mania for Anglicisms.
This newsletter therefore aims to support the weaker languages against the stronger ones. To simultaneously protect French against Anglo-American, but also Corsican, Picard and Breton against French, when the latter becomes overwhelming.
For languages to live. All the languages.
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The oldest probably remember it: General de Gaulle opened his televised speeches with these two words: “French women, French…” Logic: after having granted the right to vote to women, at the Liberation, it seemed to him coherent to integrate in its interventions the two halves of the electorate. In doing so, the founder of the Fifth Republic was one of the first to use… the egalitarian language. Because, as this example shows, inclusive language is not just about the one and so controversial midpoint. More generally, it is a set of proposals aimed at “ensuring equal representation between women and men”, as Raphaël Haddad points out in a committed – but relatively nuanced – book in favor of this practice, Inclusive writing, what if we got started? (Robert). Let’s go further: without this famous midpoint, it is likely that inclusive writing would arouse much less opposition.
Let’s start by emphasizing an essential point: because its proponents have the sole aim of improving the status of women in society, their motivation is first social and secondarily linguistic. If they attack certain traditions of the French language, it is by virtue of a conviction: language would have an effect on our collective imaginations. And to cite in support of this thesis a number of indeed disturbing experiences. Thus, female candidates would be more numerous when a hospital seeks to recruit “a nurse or a nurse” and not “a nurse”. Similarly, when asked in a survey to name “two famous athletes”, only 5% of those questioned put forward the name of a champion. On the other hand, they are three times more numerous if the question is formulated as follows: “Name two sportsmen or two famous sportswomen.”
This is explained, by the way. In French, the feminine gender is exclusively reserved for women. On the other hand, since the loss of the “neuter” gender, which existed in Latin, the masculine gender designates both single men (for example, “boxers”, this is its “specific” function) and a human group composed of men and women (for example, “the dancers” to speak of a mixed ballet corps, this is its “generic” function). This results in an ambiguity that our brain sometimes has trouble managing, tending to associate “masculine” with “man” as a priority.
Read for example this sentence: “The surgeons come out of the operating room; one of the women seems tired.” And now, answer this question honestly: weren’t you surprised to see a female surgeon appear? Theoretically, yes, and this is quite normal: faced with this type of formulation, our reading and comprehension time measured in the laboratory is longer than if the sentence had been written as follows: “Surgeons and surgeons come out of the operating room one of the women seems tired.”
The conviction of supporters of inclusive writing stems from this: if we really want to reduce inequalities between the sexes, we should no longer resort to this famous generic masculine. And that’s where the trouble begins, because the alternatives they advocate are not all unanimous (understatement). Here are a few :
• The “double bending” (in the style of General de Gaulle): “musicians”, “all and all”, “those and those”… A priori, no problem.
• Epicene terms (which have the same form in both genres): students, children, artists… There too, things go quite well.
• Encompassing formulations : the medical team, the orchestra, the management, the population… This formula also seems to have consensus.
• The famous midpoint, finally, which serves as a kind of abbreviation. “Les Françaises et les Français” then becomes “les Français es”. And this is where things go wrong… According to the surveys, this last proposal is in fact meeting with majority opposition in public opinion.
However, I come back to my initial point: as the list above shows, inclusive writing cannot be reduced to this famous point of contention. Especially since there are still others:
• Non-binary neologisms of the “celleux”, “iel” or “acteurices” type, which are also the subject of massive rejection.
• The feminization of trade namesa process which, from “director” to “ambassador”, passing by “magistrate”, which on the contrary seems widely accepted.
• The proximity agreement, consisting in granting the plural of the adjectives with the closest noun, is relatively well accepted in certain expressions deemed “euphonic” (pleasant to the ear): “those and those”, “fundamental rights and freedoms” . Present (rarely) under the pen of some great authors (Racine, Athalia : “These three days and these three whole nights”), it is even recommended by the very serious Bescherelle, who explicitly recommends the wording “certain recipes and dishes”.
Let’s end with a personal conviction. It seems to me that inclusive writing would have a better chance of taking hold without its two most controversial suggestions: the midpoint and non-binary neologisms. Will wisdom prevail? The answer belongs to its supporters… and to its supporters!
(1) Inclusive writing, what if we got started?by Raphaël Haddad, Editions Le Robert
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Take advantage of the summer to improve your Occitan in Nîmes…
Concerts, language courses, tribute to Robert Lafont and conferences are on the program of the Occitan Summer University of Nîmes, which is held from July 7 to 11. I will have the pleasure of presenting my book there this Friday Save regional languages! (ed. Heliopoles).
Another Occitan university will be held from July 11 to 16, in Laguépie (Tarn-et-Garonne). With a program concocted by the inimitable Claude Sicre, founder of the Fabulous Trobadors, in particular: “Top conferences, walks where you can learn the names of things and places (important for real ecologists), music, dance, singing, language, traditional cooking, games for children, a fabulous night of dancing with Les Bombes 2 Bal (the best ballroom group for everyone in Western Europe, according to specialists), a vegetable dye workshop, multilingual poetry, cinema, two rivers and plenty other stuff.”
If you find yourself in the Alps, don’t miss the Occitan Meetings in Provence, organized in Saint-Michel-de-Chaillol (Hautes-Alpes). They will be held from July 24 to 30 in this village in the Champsaur valley, located close to the Ecrins National Park.
Not free in July? You won’t get off so lightly. The 49ᵉ Escòla occitana d’estiu a Vilanuèva d’Òut awaits you from August 13 to 19, in Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne). With, again, multiple activities on the program around the langue d’oc!
The so-called regional languages are very much alive. The proof with this astonishing work by Anne Mancaux: a collection of 365 haikus written in Picard, with “the humble pretension of shaking up this old langue d’oïl a little by making it take a little detour to the Orient”, as its author writes it nicely. These three-line poems magnified by the Japanese tradition are not so far removed, in fact, from the proverbs, nursery rhymes and maxims that the Picard composed “in short sentences sometimes rhymed or assonanced, always pleasantly suggestive.” A discovery.
365 haitchu, by Anne Mancaux (Bilingual Picard/French book).
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This is the question posed by this program of France Culture, while several municipal councils of the Pyrénées-Orientales have been challenged by the possibility of using Catalan as a first language by administrative justice. With Marie Costa, mayor of Amélie-les-Bains and translator, Pierre Escudé, language teacher, and linguist Alain Bentolila.
TO WATCH
140 years of the Alliance Française
This documentary by Ronan Barbot, Jean-Pierre Bertrand and Antoine Rivière retraces the long history of the Alliance française, founded by Jules Ferry to promote the French language and which today has more than 800 branches around the world. An essential instrument of French cultural diplomacy.