Who is he?

Audio 29:30

The definition that is controversial.

© Le Petit Robert

By: Adrien Delgrange

1 min

It's a little word that makes a lot of noise, three letters that say a lot about the evolution of society.

“Iel” I- E- L contraction of “he” and “she” arrived without warning and has since provoked a debate, even controversy. 

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According to the definition of "iel" added a few days ago by the Le Petit Robert dictionary in its online edition, this word is a "personal pronoun subject of the third person singular and plural, used to refer to a person. whatever its genre ”.

What is the origin of this word?

Does its use make political sense?

Who is he?

This is the debate of the day.  

With

- Julie Neveux

, lecturer in Linguistics at the Faculty of Letters of Sorbonne University, playwright and author of the book

(Grasset editions)

- Jean Pruvost

, lexicologist and historian of the French language, author of the book

published by Ophrys, awarded in 2007 by the Académie française and republished in October 2021

- Mathieu Avanzi

, lecturer and researcher in Linguistics at La Sorbonne

- Anne Abeillé

, professor of Linguistics at the University of Paris, co-director of the book,

(Actes Sud, September 2021).

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