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A French Revolution

(12 Posts)
Alea Fri 05-Feb-16 08:19:26

In the Guardian:
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

Or as Set 6 used to refer to it - "An 'at , Miss!"

Lillie Fri 05-Feb-16 08:29:04

Non, pas possible, j'adore l'accent circonflexe.

I think even the pupils will be sorry not to decorate their work with ^.

TriciaF Fri 05-Feb-16 11:34:01

They'll have to redesign their keyboard. It has a little hat like this û .
They'll be banning the cedilla next - ç? no, c.

Luckygirl Fri 05-Feb-16 12:18:39

I am intrigued that they should do this as the French have always been ready to defend their language. Amazing!

Welshwife Fri 05-Feb-16 13:53:54

I don't think it is to be banned completely - just removed for some words but kept for others- sûr will remain to differentiate with sur.

grandMattie Fri 05-Feb-16 14:00:47

That's a shame, accents of whatever sort helps so much with the pronunciation and the meaning

grumppa Fri 05-Feb-16 14:52:20

Puzzled by the proposed change to the spelling of oignon/ognon. To me it indicates a change in the pronunciation.

Jalima Fri 05-Feb-16 15:44:23

And 'le week-end' is to change too - but did they pinch borrow it from the English anyway?

Meanwhile, hyphens are set to disappear from certain words - including week-end See more at: www.connexionfrance.com/france-language-reform-oignon-circumflex-hyphens-weekend-piquenique-ognon-September-view-article.html#sthash.qcDTskPi.dpuf

kittylester Fri 05-Feb-16 16:15:49

Ken Bruce said something along the lines of the French should be more like us and leave it up to individuals to guess, as in words ending in 'ough'.

granjura Fri 05-Feb-16 17:49:52

It's all just plain daft if you ask me (and my mt is French).

Grumpa the 'i' in 'oignon' is not pronounced, hence the decision to get rid of it.

I used to live in Lesta, and work in Lufbru, lol.

POGS Fri 05-Feb-16 19:35:12

Like petit pois ?

Jalima Fri 05-Feb-16 22:39:06

It's dumbing down

As did some councils in the UK when they decided to leave the apostrophes out of street names.
They should of known better
(I have noticed that in some novels recently but I'm not sure if it was a mistake or acceptable nowadays.)