The French pronoun “iel” and what it reveals about the French’s relationship to their language

Image by Ted Eytan/Creative Commons 

(https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/27937114851) 

by Amy John

Amy John (she/her) is a recent University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate with a double major in French Studies and Psychology. She plans to continue using French and to pursue a career in social work or a social work adjacent field. She wrote this blog post for 418 “Languages and Minorities in Europe” in Spring 2023.

So, what is “iel” and why is it important?

“Iel” is the French version of the English singular gender-neutral pronoun “they.” It is a combination of “il” (he) and “elle” (she) (Wagener, 2021). “Iel” and “they” are important for similar reasons. It helps us refer to people when we don’t know their gender without assuming their gender. Often, “he” or “il” are the automatic pronouns used to refer to an unknown person. For example, board game instructions often explain the game in terms of “he” as opposed to “they.” Doing this excludes everyone who doesn’t use these masculine pronouns and further ensures the idea that men are the most important gender to exist. In addition, many people do not fit with feminine or masculine pronouns, so it is essential to have other pronouns that are not in that binary so everyone can feel true to themselves and as comfortable as possible.

Why are people angry?

In November 2021, the online dictionary Le Robert added an entry for “iel.” This quickly sparked an outrage among the more conservative French people. One example of that is François Jolivet, a member of the National Assembly of France, writing a letter to l’Académie Française, which is a government organization that oversees the French language, and then posting that letter to Twitter. In this letter, he complains that le Robert is trying to add new words into the French language and is promoting a “woke” agenda (Jolivet, 2021). This is fairly representative of what most people’s complaints are. People are concerned that le Robert is secretly a liberal group with the goal of changing the language maliciously and making French more “woke.” Others are concerned that “iel” is an anglicism, and many French people do not like when English or other languages start to influence their own. However, some of the same people who complain about “iel” being an anglicism also think it is a sign of “le wokisme” which is itself an anglicism, so they are being quite contradictory in their complaints.

The real reason behind the entry

To put it simply, dictionaries are not prescriptive, they are descriptive. Shortly after the new entry, le Robert issued a statement on the pronoun. They pointed out that the reason they included it was two-fold: one, the usage of “iel” has been growing, and two, “iel” can’t be understood from just reading it, otherwise known as it is not “transparent” (Bimbenet, 2021). Therefore, as a dictionary it was their job to have an entry for it so people would know what it means when they come across it. They are not trying to make any grand statement about the word, they are just acknowledging that it is being used in day to day life and so it should be included with all of the other words.

Pictured: L'Académie Française

Image by Jorge Láscar/Creative Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise_(22487682151).jpg)

What this tells us about the French's relationship to their language

France is very resistant to change, especially when it comes to their language. That is where l’Académie Française comes in. On their mission page on their website, the first thing you see is “défense de la langue française” which means “defense of the French language” (Académie Française, n.d.). Their goal is to preserve the French language where it is with minimal changes. They are generally against anglicisms and try to find other equivalents to use instead. French people have a universalist point of view - this means they think that individual differences are not as important as the overall cohesion of the country. “Le wokisme” is something they define as being American, and not French, and therefore bad and it goes against their universalist beliefs (Shock Rule, 2022). The French’s value of universalism also explains why they might not see the purpose behind having a gender neutral pronoun. Individual differences are not as important to the French as they are to Americans, so they just don’t care as much.

Many linguists say that the French should embrace these changes since language is not supposed to be something solid and fixed, but rather fluid and show the progress and changes of society (Timsit, 2017). So, when people begin to realize that non-binary people exist, and have existed for a long time, but they don’t have the right words to describe it, of course the language will change and adapt. In the same way that “iel” is a new word, so is “perfluoré” which is when a carbon chain is totally fluorinated. And yet, there was no big fuss made about “perfluoré.” This is likely because it is not seen as a threat to societal norms and is instead just a new word that has come to be because science has evolved and the need for a new word arose. This shows that while yes, the French are very protective of their language, they do so selectively and only when it suits their own agendas, morals, and beliefs.

References

Bimbenet, C. (2021, November 16). Pourquoi le Robert A-t-il intégré le mot “ iel ” dans son dictionnaire en ligne? Le Robert Dico en Ligne. https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/dis-moi-robert/raconte-moi-robert/mot-jour/pourquoi-le-robert-a-t-il-integre-le-mot-iel-dans-son-dictionnaire-en-ligne.html

Jolivet, F. [@FJolivet36.] (2021, November 16). Le Petit Robert, dictionnaire que l'on pensait être une référence, vient d'intégrer sur son site les mots « iel, ielle, iels [Image attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/FJolivet36/status/1460629818446422016

Les Missions. Académie Française. (n.d.). https://www.academie-francaise.fr/linstitution/les-missions

Shock Rule, M. (2022, March 17). New volume on gender-neutral language sheds light on political controversy in France. UW News. https://www.washington.edu/news/2022/03/17/new-volume-on-gender-neutral-language-sheds-light-on-political-controversy-in-france/

Timsit, A. (2017, November 24). The push to make French gender-neutral. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/inclusive-writing-france-feminism/545048/

Wagener, A. (2021, December 8). No need to 'iel': Why France is so angry about a gender-neutral pronoun. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/no-need-to-iel-why-france-is-so-angry-about-a-gender-neutral-pronoun-173304