From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu Oct 05 2006 - 01:21:50 CST
From: "Marion Gunn" <mgunn@egt.ie>
> On 4 Oct 2006, at 00:29, scríobh Richard Wordingham:
>> I think 'M' and 'F' might actually be more comprehensible default
>> values than the signs, however well you and I may understand the
>> male and female signs. It's probably safer though to spell them
>> out, so that if the defaults do escape into actual use it is fairly
>> clear that they are English language escapes.
>
> Richard has made an important point to make it clear that that is an
> English default - in my own language, "M" stands for 'Mná" (Women)
> and "F" for "Fir" (Men).
Well and in french we'll have:
* "Madame, Mademoiselle, Monsieur" (all starting by "M", the first two must not be confused in common and formal speech for the feminine gender which depends on the current mariage/union or age status, but the second form becoming obsolescent, and depending on women feeling about their own status)
* Their standard abbreviation: "Mme", "Mle", "M." (and their respective plurals: "Mmes", "Mles", "MM.")
* Other titles used instead of the above for: notaries, nobility, professors, doctors...
* "féminin, masculin" (adjectives): abbreviation could be F and M
* "femme, homme" (nouns): abbreviations could be F and H
* "femelle, mâle" (adjectives, only for generic biological gender, don't use for designated people)
* "fille, garçon" (nouns to be used for young people): abbreviations could be F and G
* "meuf, mec/keum" (common vernacular argotic language)
This is not clear which abbreviation is meaningful; it not only depends on the language, but also on the context, and the level of formality in the language. this is not specific to French, of course there are similar examples in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and most probably almost alll languages and cultures!
The standard digits may be better than all these, but the problem with such standard is that it also forgets many special cases, which depend on biology, religion, culture, ethic, personal life, and laws...
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