THE FEMININE GENDER IN LINGUISTICS: IS THERE ANY EGALITARIAN LANGUAGE WITH RESPECT TO MASCULINE?
For several years, the theme of gender has been the subject of debate between several linguists, especially since the revival of feminism, during the second half of the 19th century. By default, the masculine grammatical gender, in French, refers to the male gender, while having a generic value allowing it to designate the female gender as well. Along the same lines, several feminist authors and linguists have revolted in order to promote a non-sexist language as well as an epicene language, eradicating the generic masculine and its stereotype of the superiority of men over women. Following the grammatical rule commonly learned at school which stipulates that "The masculine prevails over the feminine" decreed by several grammarians in the 17th century, we were witnessing a form of linguistic sexism, going as far as pejorative or even sexual connotations. For a few expressions, once transformed into the feminine.. It is in this context of linguistic genre that our present work takes place, relying on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis addressing linguistic relativity, while providing examples concerning the Arabic language as well.
Keywords: : Woman, Generic Masculine, Linguistic Sexism, Epicene Language, Linguistic Relativity.