aixcentric

‘The Times’ on Saturday had a fascinating article about a stand-off in the world of French linguistics which is pitting  gender-neutral campaigners against the strict traditionalists.

‘Ecriture inclusive’ has been launched to stop the masculine gender dominating written French.  It has been backed by the department for equal rights which calls the masculine ending ‘sexual tyranny’.  So, a middle dot would be included to make the word gender-neutral.  Talking about a group of friends for instance, the French call them ‘amis’ if one male is involved.  ‘Amies’ is only used when the group is all-female.  The new method would use the term ami.e.s.  (Sorry WordPress won’t let me do ‘middle-dots’ ….yet!)

Here are some other examples which I have pasted  in:

Maybe it is catching on as President Macron’s En Marche party have just adopted the slogan ‘Vos député.e.s en marche’.  And apparently next year keyboards will be available with a middle-dot key.

Interested?  Read more  here: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2017/10/07/egalite-femmes-hommes-l-ecriture-dite-inclusive-un-sujet-qui-divise_5197770_3224.html

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Thanks to Jane and Wendy for passing on this information about this popular event.

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Time for the annual summer break.

There’s so much happening in Provence right now with opera and art in Aix, theatre in Avignon, photography in Arles….music in the vineyards, cinema under the stars in the parks.  And then there’s the beach or lakes for a spot of swimming.

The picture above is ‘La Sieste a Saint-Tropez, Kisling avec Renée’ by Moise Kisling.  I know how Renée feels in this heat!

Have a lovely holiday and see you back here at the end of the summer.

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This coming weekend has a veritable feast for Bach lovers.  This elegant poster has all the details!

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