A little french lesson

[Rorelai]

Bonjour à tout.es!

 

Last year I studied abroad in France, and then afterwards I helped one of my professors on a research project on inclusion of non-binary identities in the French language classroom. For those that don't know, French like most romance languages is gendered, with everything from people, adjectives, and even furniture having a grammatical gender. This structure makes it difficult to find ways for non-binary people to express themselves, but after talking to some French enbies and conducting some more formal research with my professor, these are some of the ways we found that the language is being adapted:

 

Pronouns:

In French, there are masculine ("il") and feminine ("Elle") pronouns that correspond to "he" and "she" in English, but none that quite align with the gender neutral "they". However, some non-binary people have started using the pronoun "iel" (pronounced like "yell") which comes from a contraction of the masculine and feminine pronouns that already exist. Of course this practice is still relatively new, and unpopular outside of most LGBT circles. 

 

La langue épicène:

Translated, this means gender neutral language. This is a practice more commonly used in France, and is even supported by the government with the goal of eliminating sexism from language. Langue épicène works not by eliminating grammatical gender, but by implementing a more inclusive use of the already existing language. For example, instead of saying "les droits de l'Homme" (the rights of men), one would say "les droits humains" (human rights). When referring to groups of both men and women, instead of using the generic masculine form, the feminine ending can be added on to be more inclusive (to say "students", one could write "étudiant.es" as opposed to just the masculine "étudiants" or feminine "étudiantes") On a more personal level, this kind of adaptation can be applied when speaking about individuals. Instead of saying "je suis américaine" (I am American) I could say "je viens des Etats-Unis" (I'm from the United States). 

 

Of course, I'm by no means an expert here. I'm not a native French speaker, and it's been a while since I did this research, but for any of you enbies out there curious about learning French but unsure of how to accurately express your identity maybe this will help!

 

Bonne chance mes ami.es!

 

[Rorelai]

Merci @MaryMary. When I attended a trans support group while I was in Grenoble some of the non-binary people I spoke to said their main strategy when it came to pronouns and grammatical gender was just to flip between masculine and feminine at random, but I think it's cool to see some of the more creative ways people circumvent gender with the language.

[Dinaki]

I speak French fluently. I do speak Italian, Greek, Amharic (only speak it) and a little of English.

 

I terminated mon Lycée Français in Athens where I started it in Addis Abeba (Lycée Guébré- Mariam)

[Dinaki]

Merci chère Mary