Stolen Valor
Michael has another anthology in the pipeline and he sent out his most recent Bracken Manual of Style. He spent a paragraph on blond versus blonde. The instruction makes perfect sense in that when writers get it wrong, it jolts the reader out of her– or his– immersion in the story.
American English is heavily influenced by French in major and minor ways. For example, the British word for courage is ‘valour’, but Americans use the French spelling, ‘valor’. Canadians, um… they slap their foreheads, grumble about their silly cousins, and flip a coin.
English has embraced hundreds, more likely thousands of French words, although I’ve noticed a shift in pronunciation. Funny thing about the internet; it allows mispronunciations, misspellings, and incorrect meanings to disseminate to millions around the world in an instant.
For example, Rob has pointed out how the ‘new’ meaning of nimrod resulted from a cartoon misinterpretation. My mother used to refer to dried floral room perfume as ‘pot pourri’, pronounced POH-puh-REE, but she and others have given up and shifted to POT-pour-ee. It now sounds like a product found in a cannabis store. Generations X, Y, Z, and α tend to pronounce ‘chic’ as an infant poultry homophone of ‘chick’, no thanks to a 1970s Chic jeans ad campaign.
One of my favorite French expressions fading fast from English dictionaries is “d’accord”. It’s pronounced ‘DAK-or’ and means, “I agree.” For example: “Let’s have dinner.” “D’accord.” It can also be used like the common phrase, “Of course.”
Blondes have more Fonetics
In many languages, an –a, –e, –i vowel ending often implies a feminine presence. Consider the name Michael or better yet, Michèl Yost, the famed composer. Add an E and we’re now talking about a niece, Michèle. Adjective or noun, he might have been blond or brunet, whereas she’s blonde or brunette.
In theory, you could write, “The blonde slapped the blond.” To rephrase, you would properly describe your male main characters’ shock of hair as blond and her tresses as blonde. For example:
| masculine | feminine |
|---|---|
|
his blond mop his brunet wig He is a brunet. |
her blonde coiffure† her brunette curls She is a blonde. |
| † Note the feminine ending. | |
Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter
Most European languages divide nouns into two genders, masculine and feminine. Latin and Slavic languages have three (masculine, feminine, neuter), Asian languages none except for Hindi and offshoots. I attended the last of the Latin schools, so three genders make sense to me.
In the British Isles, Old English used genders identified with the articles ‘se’ (masculine) and ‘sēo’ (feminine). If we were speaking of savage canines and humans, this would be akin to us saying she-wolf and he-man. The prefixes and genders were lost over time as aggressors raided and invaded the wee island.
In middle school English classes, we were taught English is a genderless language. That is anything but true. Indeed, some linguists argue English has four genders: masculine, feminine, and two types of neuter: common and inanimate. Here ‘common’ refers to creatures of mixed or unknown sex that cannot be sorted into obvious genders. Examples: dog, cat, bird, and operator, doctor, programmer, and sibling, parent, and child.
English offers hundreds and hundreds, a thousand or more words, not to mention names, that imply gender. Words ending in –ess, –ette, and –trix are usually feminine. In the table at right, students begin with a basic pronouns and obvious words:
| masculine | feminine |
|---|---|
|
he, him, his man boy father husband son brother uncle mister sir king count abbot monk heir hero |
she, her, hers woman girl mother wife daughter sister aunt madam ma’am, madam queen countess abbess nun heiress heroine |
| masculine | feminine |
| –o, –u, –y | –a, –e, –I |
What about the E?
Most people are aware of the difference between fiancée (feminine) and fiancé (masculine), and of course bride and groom are gendered nouns.
For several years, I contracted with Westinghouse. Their HR department was run by an elegant lady, AvaNelle Blankenship, who put out notices and newsletters. I’ve never known anyone else to use the word employé with a single trailing E. She used it for men and used the plural employés for groups, de rigueur within the company. Women remained employées with a double E.
Devotee is a curious word, which often, but not always, implies a feminine fan or follower. Occasionally we see devoté that refers to a male enthusiast.
Devotee is curious because it looks French but isn’t. Some wit decided a double EE ending looked more frenchified. The correct words en français are dévote (feminine) and dévot (masculine). Note how the accented É we see in French endings in ée jumped from the tail of the word to its head. Think of it as a pronunciation aid implying the sound of an English long A.
Just for You
| French | English |
|---|---|
|
côte forêt hôtel hôpital |
coast forest hostel, hotel hospital |
Speaking of diacriticals, if you don’t know these French words, I’ll help you with a clue. Note that each has a circumflex and that mark hints that a letter is missing from the original Latin. That letter is usually S.
For example, the actual name of the French Riviera is Côte d’Azur. If we realize the word used to have an S making it sound like ‘coste’ and azure is the color blue, we conclude the French meaning is Coast of Blue.
Note: I have to issue a warning that as an elementary student of languages, I’m not particularly au fait with French and my Latin has faded into obscurity, so I likely introduced many, many mistakes.
Good stuff, Leigh.
ReplyDeleteThe way I've always thought of blond/blonde is this: blond is an adjective; blonde is a noun. The blonde has blond hair. It still jars me to read about someone's "blonde hair." But LOTS of folks disagree.
The Oxford says, "The spellings blonde and blond correspond to the feminine and masculine forms in French." Both can be adjectives or nouns.
DeleteJohn, in the current peculiar gender obsessed environment, some young writers are dropping distinctions, so according to their lights, the words in this article, including blond/blonde should be used interchangeably.
Fun with words! Or how we landed on them, anyway. I really liked this post.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bob. The article started simply enough, but I stumbled upon the argument that English has four genders. That would have given our Latin forefathers/foremothers/forepeople yet another wrinkle in an already complicated language.
DeleteAlso, a lot of words in French that begin with (accent e) have an "s" in front of them in English. Etudes = studies; etudiant - student, etc.
ReplyDeleteGerman, BTW, does have a neutral pronoun - das madchen is a virgin.
Eve, école (school) was the first word that popped into my head. In écrire/écrit, we can see the first few letters of scribe (write). Understanding a few rules, English speakers can begin picking out a few phrases. Of course the trickiest part for us is recalling which words are feminine and which are masculine.
DeleteBy the way, I’ve been reading stories translated from Japanese by Japanese. Upon occasion, sentences become tangled trying to sort out the pronouns he/she/it and his/hers/its. A scene may have two women interacting when suddenly ‘he’ does this or that. Huh? Where did he come from? These minor mistakes can be figured out, but it’s worse when a man and a woman are in a scene and the text conflicts, such as “He verb him.” Wait, what?
But hey, they have fluency in both languages, better than I have.
Now you just knew I was going to respond to this, Leigh - as a Canadian! To be totally honest, we are taught British English here, and would lose marks if we didn't include the u in honour, etc. (I know - I used to teach grammar at college.) However, since my main book market is the US, our books (usually) are changed to respect US spelling. Drives me to drink, which is not a bad place to be, if you're buying :)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't asked, but in hanging out with Canadian ruffians, I understood education leaned British, and why not? Did I say ruff? I meant chuff, yeah, that's what I meant. Damn, I've got to be careful of that word!
DeleteMelodie and Mary, I pray for sunny weather during your six days of summer. Come visit your Florida province!
I have long believed, and I stand by this... In regard to the usage as a noun, a man with yellow hair is a blond. A woman with yellow hair is a blonde. When used as an adjective, whether for a man or a woman, the word is always spelled blond.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first premise! It's interesting, Barb, even in a small group like ours, we have a diverse view of how to use blond/blonde (and presumably brunet/brunette).
DeleteCome to think of it, I don't think I've ever written that a male character is brunet or brunette.