“Reduce illegibility”: France declares war on an inclusive language in schools

PARIS.- France has banned the use of an inclusive language in schools, considering that it “constitutes an obstacle to reading and understanding writing”, officially ending a debate that has divided linguists and the educational community for years.

A mortal danger for the language of Molière or a way to fight against the inequalities between the sexes? Inclusive language, also called gender-neutral or inclusive, is For years, the subject of heated debate between specialists.

For his opponents it is an “aberration” which puts languages ​​in danger, while for their support is part of building a fairer world which has been ruled for centuries by the binary order.

French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer tried to end this debate by banning the use of inclusive writing in schools, which in recent times has gained prominence, especially among the youngest.

“The use of so-called ‘inclusive’ writing, which notably uses the midpoint to simultaneously reveal the feminine and masculine forms of a word used in the masculine when used in a generic sense, should be prohibited.he said in a circular published Thursday in the Official Journal of the State.

For example, the spelling “MPs“It responds to a combination of the masculine plural (deputies) with the feminine (deputies) of the word deputy, in rejection of the grammatical rule according to which the masculine gender is imposed in the plural.

“Our language is a precious treasure that we have the vocation to share with all our students, in its beauty and its fluidity, without quarrels and without exploits”, adds the circular addressed to the rectors of the academy and to the staff of the Ministry of National Education.

However, the ministry supports the feminization of certain words, especially professions, as long as grammatical rules are respected and asks teachers to “respect equality between girls and boys” through “the fight against stereotypical representations”.

“Society is changing”

The minister is not the first to declare war on inclusive language. In 2017, the prestigious Académie française de la langue described it as an “aberration”.

“The multiplication of spelling and syntactic marks which leads to a disjointed language, disparate in its expression, creating a confusion which borders on illegibility“, he underlined.

For Mathieu Avanzi, professor of linguistics at the Sorbonne, this subject arouses passions because “It affects a language and an established system” for centuries. “The love of the language is something very French, as soon as the language is touched, shields go up everywhere,” he says.

In addition, he points out, this bothers a lot because these are proposals that emanate from a certain form of activism. “When the language evolves naturally, people do not see them, when they respond to an activist line, they will always cause problems in certain sectors,” he summarizes for AFP.

Apart from the government and the Academy, the Senate is the other French institution where inclusive language has generated the most controversy. On Thursday, senators from the left and from the right opposed a dialogue of the deaf.

The executive, through the mouth of the Secretary of State for Priority Education, Nathalie Elimas, launched a salvo of criticism against that he does not consider as “a minor problem”, but as a “danger” for the school and the French language, even for the Republic.

“The language evolves because the society evolves”, replied the socialist Laurence Rossignol, stressing that “the generic masculine excludes the women”.

“Ignore these instructions”

In the academic world, reactions are mixed. It’s a statement, the LDS teachers’ union denounced an attempt by the minister “to impose his conservatism on the educational community” and called to “ignore these instructions”.

But other teachers, on the other hand, point to the problems inclusive language can pose for children with learning disabilities, contrary to what the inclusive adjective might suggest.

“As a citizen, I use it, but not with my students. Teachers are aware of the problems this can pose for students with dyslexia», Declared to AFP Stéphane, professor of history in Toulouse (southwest).

There are also doubts about the urgency of this battle, while there are none more urgent. “I am surprised by all this legislative energy to fight against what does not seem to me to be the most urgent problem for schools, especially in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis,” he adds.

Agencia AFP

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