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Vive La Difference? When It Comes to Language, Maybe Not

Dec 05, 2018
by Caroline Miller
Bucherer, Cardinal Richelieu, Cartier, Dictionnaire de l'académie française, gender neutral language, James Reginato, the French dictionary, The Immortals
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The Immortals courtesy of globalnews.ca

Would the French, who are among the first to celebrate the difference between the sexes – “vive la difference” – ever consider a gender neutral language?  I wouldn’t bet on it.  Everyone knows in France a cat is “le chat,” (male) while a mouse, is “la souis,” (female) – a difference which may explain the animosity between the two.  Nonetheless, French feminists and those of far left leanings, are demanding their language become more gender inclusive.  The demand has caused a culture stir, but who is authorized to decide?

Writer James Reginato tells us it’s The Immortals.  (“The Immortals,” by James Reginato, Vanity Fair, Oct. 2018,pg. 122)  They are members of a select academy that  Cardinal Richelieu created in 1635.  Their mission, at the time, was to compile the  official French dictionary.  It took them 56 years.  Since then, every edition of the Dictionnaire de l’académie française  has been produced by elites selected for a lifetime appointment through a long and arduous process.  Critics have gone so far as to  compare their election to the elevation of the Pope. (Ibid, pg. 124)

Perhaps, that is a worthy comparison.  Like every French person, the elites take an almost religious view of their language, dreading all things foreign — which is another way of referring to all that is common and English.  Their charge, by charter, is to shape their “language in the way of greatest eloquence, resourcefulness, and beauty; to steer it in the direction of the best French possible.” (Ibid pg. 122) 

As I say, to prove worthy of their task, they face an arduous screening well before the President of France approves them.  After that, the newly anointed delivers an  hour long speech  on the accomplishments of his or her predecessor. (Ibid pg. 125)

Survivors enjoy perks, of course.  The Immortals meet in a palace, wear expensive, hand embroidered robes, and sport a sword fashioned by famous jewelers like Cartier and Bucherer.  The  limit on the amount of jewels one can flash depends upon the generosity of one’s friends who provide the wherewithal.

An outsider might question whether or not so much pomp and circumstance is necessary to compile a dictionary.  But for those who believe the French language has a soul, nothing short of velvet and diamonds will do.

Having once been an English teacher, I could never find such passion for  language in the United States.  Our words are of mongrel descent.  A stew provided by decades of immigration, our vernacular can lay no claim to purity.  I don’t object.  I celebrate the mix, actually.   Still, something in me longs to preserve the “wish tense”, the subjunctive, and cringes where I hear that some issue is concerning rather than being of concern.   Does my sensitivity make me French, I wonder.

 

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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