The aim was to standardise and simplify certain quirks in the written language making it easier to learn (among them chariot to charriot to harmonise with charrette, both words for a type of cart and the regrouping of compound nouns like porte-monnaie/portemonnaie (purse), extra-terrestres/extraterrestres and week-end/weekend, to do away with the hyphen.
The circumflex will be removed from above the letters I and U where the accent does not change the pronunciation or meaning of the word.While the “revised spelling list” was not obligatory, dictionaries were advised to carry both old and new spellings, and schools were instructed to use the new versions but accept both as correct.
The reforms provoked a #JeSuisCirconflexe campaign (derived from the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag) on Twitter. As the row spread across the internet and social networks, some wondered why the reforms, decided 26 years ago, had suddenly become such an issue.
Sometimes I scoff at the notion that France seems to have a central authority on such matters. But then again I wish we had a central authority to give us gender-neutral pronouns. (And I guess, in a way, we can call MLA/AP/etc our “central authority”)Report