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Declaration of the French Academy on so-called "inclusive" writing
The 26 October 2017
Declaration of the French Academy
DECLARATION of the ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE
on so-called "INCLUSIVE" WRITING
unanimously adopted by its members
in the session of Thursday 26 October 2017
Taking note of the spread of an "inclusive writing" that claims to be the norm, the French Academy unanimously raises a solemn warning. The multiplication of the orthographic and syntactic marks that it induces leads to a disunited language, disparate in its expression, creating a confusion which borders on illegibility. It is difficult to see what the objective is and how it could overcome the practical obstacles of writing, reading - visual or aloud - and pronunciation. It would weigh on the task of the pedagogues. This would further complicate that of readers.
More than any other institution, the French Academy is sensitive to developments and innovations in the language, since its mission is to codify them. On this occasion, it is less a guardian of the norm than a guarantor of the future that it raises a cry of alarm: before this "inclusive" aberration, the French language is now in mortal danger, which our nation is now accountable to future generations.
It is already difficult to acquire a language, what will happen if the use adds to it second and altered forms? How will future generations grow in intimacy with our written heritage? As for the promises of the Francophonie, they will be destroyed if the French language prevents itself by this duplication of complexity, for the benefit of other languages that will take advantage to prevail on the planet.