#iel

It's kind of a complicated question actually !

Fortunatly, I have a master degree in literature, so get ready...

For a long time, as soon as french existed as a distinct language from latin (VI° century or so) French people used the three singular pronuns Il/elle/on (he/she/singular non defined, a singular they, a "someone")

BUT, with time, this "on" became a pronoun ONLY used as a "someone" : you can not name the on and it does not work in every sentences. It also has no plurial, possessive or anything, it can't really be qualified... It's a weird little pronoun. It stands in for "someone".

"Someone stole my shoes" or "someone ate my apple" but not "I like Annie, someone is my friend !", you see ?

So, quite recently, french people have invented a NEW pronoun ! IEL !

Since the french language is VERY gendered, it's kind of hard to use for now and people are still figuring out the rules concerning adjectives, but we have a fitting pronoun for a singular non binary/unknown-gendered person now !

Exemple : quelqu'un a ouvert le frigo et iel a volé mon repas : someone opened the fridge and they stole my lunch. It is starting ro replace the "on", wich now serves as a softer, undefined "us" or "them".

"I like Annie, they are my friend" translate to "J'aime bien Annie, iel est mon ami.e" !

(Ami being masculine and Amie being feminine, most people use "ami.e". As the final "e" is mute in most french adjectives and only noticeable when written, most adjectives stay the same in orality.)

It might change in the future but already authors and even some politicians, schools or other official governement things have started to use iel, so we simply have a SINGULAR THEY NOW ! Wich is great !

For the plurial, iels, very simply !

So yeah ! French is CHANGING to adapt to its people ! And it's great !

Play date with dad .. ! 🖍️

a French(-canadian) ranting

[French will follow, image has translation in ALT]

Francophones, especially in Canada, tend to be insecure about their language. And I understand that. Especially with the Académie Française, France, and the fact that in North America, we're in an ocean of English. There's a reason to be insecure.

Divide and conquer.

Our governments worry about things that aren't important, that aren't real problems, just so we'll forget their lousy record and the real problems.

The Quebec government is ruining our province in terms of health, education, and the protection of vulnerable people. They make authoritarian decisions (or threaten to do so) like special laws to prevent strikes (caused by their shitty management), bills to prevent things that aren't even problems (street prayers, saying "bonjour-hi" (or just, the english language in general) in a store, etc.), building highways that have been proven by studies (that cost millions) to be useless, and stubbornly insisting on not giving a damn about the environment and public transportation.

And now, banning inclusive writing in government communications.

Why?

Because it's not a real problem. Because people will "agree" with them. Because "it's woke to say "iel" (singular they) and woke people are all snowflakes." Because people will focus on that instead of the shitty records the government is having.

Without realizing that step by step, the Legault government is becoming more and more authoritarian, and that's not something we should be okay with. We can feel Trump's influence on our politicians' agendas.

Inclusive writing isn't just "for iels" (read her trans/non-binary people). It's a concept that's existed for years simply to be inclusive of everyone. Like, writing "les étudiants-es" or "les canadiens-nes" because it's faster than writing "les étudiantes et étudiants."

Inclusive writing has been increasingly used for over fifteen years. It's been adopted in everyday life and it legitimizes the existence of trans and non-binary people. And that scares the government. They'll pretend it confuses people, when it's quite the opposite: they're annoyed by the fact that it confuses the people less and less.

Anyway, I'm pissed off.

[French]