Woke French Dictionary Adds "Non Binary" Pronouns to Language -- Despite the Inconvenient Fact That Almost No One In France Uses Them

A French dictionary has added a #Woke nonbinary pronoun to the dictionary.

Couple of things you should know:

Like most languages except English, French has an authoritative academy -- the Academie Francaise -- which makes official rulings on the language and makes changes to spelling and usage, if needed. If they decide to eliminate an irregular spelling in favor for a regular spelling, they'll, for example, declare that the country will be switching to the regular spelling in 2032, and until then, both the irregular but traditional spelling and the regular but new spelling will be officially deemed "correct" for all purposes.

This is a pretty nice little compromise that seem to keep the traditionalists satisfied that the irregular spelling they committed to memory as children will at least be respected for ten more years, while eventually phasing it out in favor of a spelling that follows the normal spelling rules.

It's a system that seems to work without too much consternation. Every few years more verbs are made into regular verbs, and more spellings are brought into comportment with regular spelling rules.

The point of this is that it is the Academie Francaise that traditionally makes these calls, not some Woke dictionary editors.

On the other hand, the dictionary in France is Le Petit Robert, and that's the dictionary that has decided to go woke, without so much as a by-your-leave from the Academie.

The other point is that French, like Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Latin, already has a "nonbinary" neutral pronoun. That pronoun is... "he." I mean, the French for he, "il." In French and all Latin-based languages, the masculine pronoun is also the neuter or "non-binary" pronoun.

Il pleuve means It's raining, not He's raining. (Though I'm sure poets and songwriters have used it to mean "he's raining," as in "He's crying.")

As far as group pronouns, ils is "they" meaning a group of males, elles is "they" referring to a group of females. But ils also refers to a group of mixed males and females. Again, the "male" pronoun does double-duty as both a male and neuter pronoun.

This is why it makes no sense to say "Latinx." Spanish already has a word for a group of both male and female Latinos. That word is... Latinos. A group of all-female Latin people is Latinas, a group of all male Latins is Latinos, a group of both male and female Latins -- and non-binary, and intersex, and 2-spirit, and bunselves -- is "Latinos."

But Woke White College Karens who took a 1-credit course in Appreciating South American Culture decided it was time to make some improvements to the Spanish language, So.

Anyway, the French actually don't like this woke crap and they are extremely proud of their culture and language and don't like seeing it vandalized by foreign barbarians with bizarre sexual proclivities.

French dictionary Le Robert decided to add the entry "iel" -- a combination of "il" and "elle," which means "he" and "she" in French respectively -- into the online version of its dictionary in October.

It's a "personal subject pronoun of the third person singular and plural, used to refer to a person regardless of gender," the dictionary entry reads.

Together with its plural and feminine form, called collectively as "iel, ielle, iels, ielles," this new addition to the French language has triggered strong opposition from some French politicians.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Your "non-binary" pronoun iel--

ALSO HAS A "FEMININE FORM"???!

SO "IEL" IS THE MASCULINE FORM OF THE "NON-BINARY" PRONOUN, AND "IELLE" IS THE FEMININE FORM OF THE "NON-BINARY" PRONOUN?

Do you--

Do you not see--

having masculine and feminine forms makes them "binary"?

Don't you need a ANOTHER "non-binary" pronoun for people who are, what's the word, actually non-binary?

Sacre Merde, this is even stupider than I thought it was going to be.

Well I guess the non-binary pronouns have to have a gender, because every noun or pronoun in French is either male or female.

So....

What is the point?

"The Petit Robert, a dictionary that we thought was a reference, has just integrated on its site the words "iel, ielle, iels, ielles," said French lawmaker François Jolivet, from French President Emmanuel Macron's party La Republique en Marche, in a tweet on Tuesday.

"Its authors are therefore militants of a cause that has nothing to do with France: #wokisme," Jolivet said.

His anger resonated among other French lawmakers, including the Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.

"Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language," Blanquer said in a tweet on Tuesday.

"Hence, even though our students are consolidating their fundamental knowledge, they cannot have this as a reference."

CNN has reached out to the French Academy, the governing body of the French language, for comment.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal reiterated the government's position "not to use inclusive writing in all official documents and administrative documents," at his weekly press conference on Wednesday.

Le Robert responded with a statement on Wednesday saying that it is simply trying to reflect recent changes in the French language that it has noticed.

It admitted that the general use of "iel" is still low, and the dictionary entry flags that the word is "rare." But the editorial committee thought it would be useful to include the entry and clarify its meanings for people so that they can decide if they want to use it or reject it.

There's always an argument among grammarians between prescriptivists -- those who prescribe how a language ought to be used -- and descriptivists -- those who view their science as being chiefly about describing how a language is used, whether it's right or not.

Prescriptivists might say "ain't" isn't a word. Descriptivists would say, it gets used enough that it should be counted as word.

But in this case, Le Petit Robert admits that barely anyone is using "iel." So they're not descriptivists. And they're not prescriptivists -- at least not in terms of insisting on older, traditional rules of grammar and usage.

Instead they prescriptivists for Woke rules that no one is currently following but which they insist should be followed.

They're not describing current usage, nor are they reiterating traditional usage -- they're propgandizing for usages that no one uses, but which the Non-Binary zealots of #wokisme think should be used.

Faugh.

Faugh, say.

As a great man said: Tout ce qui est "woke" change en merde.

posted by Ace at 04:43 PM

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