Abstract
AbstractIn this article, we document the gender of the noun “COVID-19” in a database of more than 76,000 tweets and in traditional media (approximately 500,000 articles) in French as spoken in Africa, (North) America and Europe. We find that North American media comply near-categorically with the recommendations of the feminine by the World Health Organization and local linguistic authorities in March 2020. The majority of North American tweets follow suit soon after. The African data show an increase of articles and tweets adopting the feminine after the Académie française's recommendation in May 2020. Finally, the feminine is negligible in the European data. We argue that among the factors at play are dialect-specific differences in French gender and loanword adaptation; the complex relationship among linguistic authorities, the public, and local media; and the relative delay in the Académie française's recommendation of the feminine.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
