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Since the topic is “who defines English”, it’s useful to list our experiences with Académie Française. - Seats can only be replaced at death, which explains th
by eastbound 4y ago
Since the topic is “who defines English”, it’s useful to list our experiences with Académie Française.
- Seats can only be replaced at death, which explains the advanced age. I generally think old people have more experience than younger ones, but opinions vary, and youngism and modernism are a thing.
- The first woman in the Académie, in 1980, was Marguerite Yourcenar, and she probably was the most non-feminist woman they could choose.
- Recently they opposed the “français.e.s” style of writing, sticking to the classic “français(e)s” or “ladies and gentlemen” inclusive writing. It made an uproar because the first one is described as the only inclusive one by feminist organizations, who like to forget that we included women before they were born. So we reached a fun state where the government uses the feminist one, the Académie says it’s not French, all organizations that want to please women align with the government, but I assure you I never receive management-oriented document in feminist writing, I rarely receive resumes or cover letters in feminist style, nor would I accept them if I got them (political militantism doesn’t make a good employee, especially if they pretend including women is a new thing).
Any other fun story about the moral upstanding of the Académie Française would be interesting too.
- Glawen 4y agoWhat you call feminist writing has been around in academic circles for a long time, it really burst out recently with woke movement. I like the idea about Académie, at least it defines a way to write new words. Some are picked up by people, and others are ignored, but that's ok too.
- hashmush 4y agoSounds like you have an ax to grind. The whole comment comes of as very dismissive of the feminist movement (which might be justified, I know nothing about feminism in France). > [..] nor would I accept them if I got them (political militantism doesn’t make a good employee, especially if they pretend including women is a new thing). I don't know what to make of this, you'd reject candidates because they used dots instead of parenthesis, citing political militantism?
- denton-scratch 4y ago> because they used dots Written language should be pronounceable - it's a written rendition of a spoken language. Even math formulae are pronounceable. How are you supposed to pronounce “français.e.s”?
- hashmush 3y agoNot really the main point of my comment, but okay. Firstly, mapping symbols to sound is arbitrary and based on convention. I don't speak French, but I wouldn't say français.e.s is that much worse than français(e)s, pronunciation-wise. But I do agree that -.e.s is a bit odd. Kinda like w/ and w/o in English. I mean, seriously, why isn't it w. and w.o. like any other abbreviation.
- denton-scratch 3y agoI think it's more like "s/he". It's a typographical notation with no common understanding of how it's supposed to be pronounced.