Language Origin Precedence
French Gender for English Loanwords
English is Modern French main source of borrowings. How does French language deal with nouns coming from a language with poor gender system? It systematically gives them a masculine gender. Canadian French has a different way to assimilate those words though (French Canadian: la job) Unless English loanwords are frenchified like boxe f. (boxing), surprise partie f. (party), firme f. (firm) or have a familiar romanized form like overdose (Fr. dose f.) or télévision (French suffix), nouns of Anglo-saxon origin are given a masculine gender regardless of their spelling. This is an adaptation of English neuter gender when referring to non-living things.
after-shave
airbag
attaché-case
baby-foot
baby-sitting
background
badge
baffle
ball-trap
barbecue
base-ball
bazooka
best-off
best-seller
bifteck
business
blazer
block-note
bluff
body
boggie
bogue (bug)
bowling
box
break
bridge
brushing
bulldozer
bungalow
byte
caddie
cake
clone
club
cocktail
cottage
crawl
cyclo-cross
cyclone
camping
camping-car
challenge
charter
chèque
chewing-gum
dribble
drive
drugstore
flash
flirt
folklore
football
freezer
gang
golf
hall
hamburger
harmonica
hit-parade
hold-up
home
jazz
jerrycan
jingle
job
jogging
juke-box
ketchup
kidnapping
kit
lifting
lobby
loft
look
looping
lunch
magazine
marketing
match
meeting
milk-shake
mobil home
music–hall
non-sens
palace
parking
patchwork
pedigree
pipeline
planning
play-back
porridge
poster
practice
pressing
pull-over
punch
puzzle
rallye
ranch
remake
ring
rugby
sandwich
scalp
scanner
scoop
score
scotch
scrabble
script
self-control
self-service
shampooing
shoot
shopping
short
show
skate
skateboard
sketch
slogan
slow
smash
smoking
snack-bar
square
standing
steak
stick
stress
string
strip-tease
surf
suspense
sweat-shirt
tag
tee
tee-shirt
tennis (sport)
timing
toast
talkie-walkie
vanity-case
vote
walkman
warning
waters
week-end
Some specific cases:
interview m./f. < from French entrevue f.
royalties f. < from French (roialté) royauté f.
jungle f. < from Hindoustani jangal
chips f. < Eng. potato chips < from Sp. patata f. > French patate f.
start-up f. Amalgam: entreprise/société/compagnie f.
jet-set f. Amalgam : classe/catégorie sociale f.
tennis f. Ellipsis : (chaussures f. de) tennis
Copyright © Ginette Guillard-Chamart 2009. All rights reserved.