The French no longer know their onions

Changes in the spelling of some 2,400 French words have sparked indignation among traditionalists.

When the word “oignon” can be replaced with “ognon”, guardians of the language fear French will be boiled down to a medium just for “text messaging”.

The spelling changes were designed to simplify the language and were approved by the authoritative Académie Française in 1990.

Little happened at the time, but the alterations reappeared in a 2015 education ministry bulletin exhorting primary schools to introduce them in the 2016 curriculum.

Letters that do not add phonetic or semantic meaning are to be removed; hence, the word for onion can be spelled “ognon”.

The circumflex on “î” and “û” will be optional for many words, so that “maîtresse” (mistress) can be written “maitresse" and coût (cost) can be written "cout".

But the circumflex will continue to appear in some words where the meaning would be changed, such as sûr, which would change the meaning from "certain" or "sure" to "on top of" or "on".

And it will maintain its supremacy over the letter o, such as “hôtel".

Hyphens were stripped out of a number of words, so for example “le weekend” and “portmonnaie” (wallet) become à la mode.

Social media lit up after the changes became known with both fervent condemnation and ardent applause. The changes are reviled by those who fear the step is a dumbing down while defenders point out that the alterations are optional and that the French language has changed many times over the centuries.

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