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https://theconversation.com/no-need-to-iel-why-france-is-so-angry-about-a-gender-neutral-pronoun-173304>
"Spirited public debate over language is a very French passion.
So it’s no surprise that when the online edition of Le Robert, the famous
French dictionary, chose to include the gender-neutral pronoun “iel” – a
combination of the French pronouns “il” (he) and “elle” (she) that corresponds
to the singular “they” in English – a furious controversy erupted.
MP François Jolivet accused the dictionary of succumbing to “wokism” by
including the pronoun and its defintion, while the minister for education,
Jean-Michel Blanquer, tweeted: “Inclusive writing is not the future of the
French language”.
When asked for her opinion on the issue, the president’s wife, Brigitte Macron,
incorrectly remarked that there are only two pronouns in the French language.
(As well as the uncontroversial “on” meaning “one” or the casual “we”, La
Grande Grammaire du Français mentions many more.)
Yet contrary to the assertions of the most emotional commentators, the editors
of Le Robert do not constitute a “militant armada” determined to abuse the
French language, but simply a team of lexicographers who, with patience and
method, observe changes to the lexicon and then decide whether to include new
words in their editions."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
