The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists SUMMER 2025 The Linguist 17 FEATURES yet some have made attempts to create a standardised system of neutral French grammar. The most famous is likely the Système Al, designed by Alpheratz in 2018, which has since been subject to suggested amendments by theorists like Florence Ashley. The Système Al is thus named as it champions the neopronoun al over iel. It presents some neutral neologisms that have been widely accepted in trans circles. The reason this total reconstruction is necessary is that French often has words that are morphologically very different between the masculine and feminine, such as beau (m) and belle (f) for 'beautiful', and words that are only recognised as feminine by the addition of an 'e' at the end and the pronunciation of the final consonant, such as étudiant (m) and étudiante (f) for 'student'. In both cases, there is no obvious neutral form, as there often is in Spanish, so completely new words or endings must be created. For the first scenario, combination words such as belleau (belle + beau) or danseureuse (danseur + danseuse; 'dancer') are employed, or a new ending is invented, as is the case with lectaire (n; 'reader'), rather than lecteur (m) and lectrice (f). These suffixes can be learnt and replicated with other words (e.g. auteur (m), autrice (f), autaire (n); 'author'), and thus could very feasibly represent new grammatical rules. In most cases, however, the neutral is easier to formulate. When words are only differentiated by the pronounced final consonant, such as with étudiant/étudiante, Système Al suggests using a pronounced -x, -t or -s (sometimes spelt -xe or -te to reinforce the pronunciation) to create étudianxe (n). This is followed by several French-speaking organisations, including the Canadian LGBTQ+ charity Egale. Similarly, an -x is often used in words where the pronunciation is identical between the masculine and feminine but the spelling changes, e.g. joli (m), jolie (f), jolix (n; 'pretty'). Other homophones, like employé/employée, are spelt with an ae ending (employae [ɑ̃ .plwa.je]) both in noun forms and in gendered verb structures. There are many proposed alternatives to all manner of gendered grammar elements (see the table below). Once one has learnt these new grammatical rules, it is quite simple to create neutral sentences: Lu danseureuse s'est levae tard, mais sa famille l'a attendux pour sortir ('The dancer woke up late, but their family waited for them to leave'). Some may view these changes with hesitancy, or see them as an 'aberration' (to use the Académie's term for inclusive language), but keeping up with such innovations is vital for translators and interpreters, as we need to be able to recognise and understand language in all its expressions. Furthermore, as a linguist, one of my greatest joys is in moulding, bending and pushing language to its limits; seeing what we can do with it. It is my belief that language is the lens through which we understand the world – we cannot fully conceptualise something we do not have words to express; we cannot truly discuss concepts with imprecise vocabulary. Why, otherwise, do we spend so much time compiling our glossaries? We want to do justice to what another wishes to convey. The existence of these new grammars not only poses a riveting linguistic exploration but also validates, and brings expressibility and visibility to, whoever wishes to employ them in their lives. While the people developing and using variations of neutral French are certainly a minority, I would recommend readers look at grammars such as those proposed by Egale 1 and Alpheratz, 2 as they are more comprehensive than most and truly fascinating in their differences and justifications. To conclude, I invite the reader to reflect on their own position. Would you use gender-neutral language in your work? Why? What if it became more mainstream? We usually translate inclusive French into neutral English (les étudiant·e·s > 'the students'), but in the inverse what would you choose? The generic masculine, inclusive writing or neutral language? Notes 1 https://cutt.ly/alpheratz 2 https://cutt.ly/egale BEYOND INCLUSIVE Feminist activism drove de-masculinised language, challenging the idea that the masculine can be used generically for all genders Definite article Indefinite article COD COI Demonstrative Neutral singular Lu/lo An Lu Lu Céal Neutral plural Les Ans/des Les Leur Çauz Neutral grammar alternatives Gendered singular Le/la Un/une Le/la Lui/elle Celle/celui © SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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