Adding a new variant to the French translation
Hi,
Short version: Could you add a new variant of French, called “gender-neutral French” (“français neutre”, in French)?
Long version: I recently updated the French translation of MediaWiki, fixing the gender of expressions referring to users whose gender is unknown (or not accessible with {{GENDER}}), by using a neutral form instead of the masculine form. (This is equivalent to using the gender-neutral “they” instead of “he” for someone whose gender is unknown or non-binary.) However, some other French translators opposed that they consider “he” to be neutral, and thus are about to revert my changes.
So, I asked if it was possible to add a new variant of French (let's call it “gender-neutral French”, as opposed to the current one, “masculine French”) as SPIP developpers did, and they told me to ask here. So, here am I: Could you add a new variant of French, called “gender-neutral French” (« français neutre », in French)?
Best regards, Valentin
MediaWiki localisation is gender neutral. The degree to which a language can or needs to be bent in order to be gender neutral varies, but I'm sure French offers sufficient "neutralisation" devices for you to reach the goal here. The best way is not always the most "shockingly gender neutral", sometimes you need a bit of creativity: needs some hard work and discussion among translators, there are no shortcuts.
Con simpatia cisalpina, Federico
I already tried… in translations I used lesser neutral translations to make them “lesser shocking” than the language I usually use, but they still are refused by the three other translators I discussed with.
Best talk about this on a talk page like Portal_talk:Fr based on goals and examples, and only make change after reaching consensus now that you know this...
P.s. Thanks for the tweet. It made me discover this thread.