Not
the oignon: fury as France changes 2,000 spellings and ditches
circumflex
#JeSuisCirconflexe
campaigners fight back against decision by the Academie Française to
‘fix anomalies’ and scrap the circumflex accent
Agence France-Presse
in Paris
Friday 5 February
2016 06.04 GMT
French linguistic
purists have voiced online anger at the loss of one of their
favourite accents – the pointy little circumflex hat (ˆ) that sits
on top of certain vowels.
A change in the
spelling of some 2,000 French words will come into effect in new
primary school textbooks being released for the start of the school
year in September, the education ministry and publishers have
announced.
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The circumflex
accent will become optional for many words, as will other spelling
changes that have purists rubbing their eyes – such as onion, which
can now be spelled “ognon” as well as the traditional “oignon”.
The changes, which
have caused uproar on French Twitter, were first approved by the
prestigious guardians of the French language, the Academie Française,
in 1990.
Since then both
versions have been accepted, but the new spellings only began
appearing in official documents in the past few years.
The 2015 official
bulletin on new school teaching curricula refers to the 1990 changes
as the gold standard for teaching spelling.
“What is new is a
more explicit reference” to the reformed spelling in official
material, said Sylvie Marce of the textbook publisher Belin. Some
publishers had already made the changes.
The changes were
made to fix spelling anomalies and inconsistencies, according to a
website devoted to the recommended spelling.
It adds hyphens,
takes them away, tweaks spellings and removes the circumflex from the
‘i’ and the ‘u’ where the accent makes no change to accent or
meaning.
The circumflex is
“one of the main causes of errors and its usage is random”, said
the website.
But many are not
convinced.
“I will continue
to use the circumflex, and to judge those who don’t,” wrote one
Twitter user.
The hashtag
##JeSuisCirconflexe (I am circumflex) – a nod to the Je Suis
Charlie phrase that swept social media after the attack on Charlie
Hebdo in January last year – went viral in France.
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In other changes,
“week-end” becomes “weekend” as in English, but the word
“leader” takes on a more French spelling of “leadeur” in the
recommended spelling.
“This has been the
official spelling in the Republic for 25 years. What is surprising is
that we are surprised,” said Michel Lussault, president of the
school curriculum board.
“There were
strange spelling anomalies linked to historic shifts so the Academie
really made sure these changes were understandable,” he said.
It was not an
upheaval, he added, more a “clean-up”.
When making the new
spelling recommendations in 1990, the then “perpetual secretary”
of the Academie Française Maurice Druon wrote that “language is a
living thing”, adding: “Work should begin again in 30 years, if
not earlier.”
10 spellings that
will change
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Oignon becomes ognon
(onion)
Nénuphar becomes
nénufar (waterlily)
S’entraîner
becomes s’entrainer (to train)
Maîtresse becomes
maitresse (mistress or female teacher)
Coût becomes cout
(cost)
Paraître becomes
paraitre (to appear)
Week-end becomes
weekend (weekend)
Mille-pattes becomes
millepattes (centipedes)
Porte-monnaie
becomes portemonnaie (wallet)
Des après-midi
becomes des après-midis (afternoons)
Source: TF1
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