French spelling reform from 1990
The French spelling reform ( French Rectification de l'orthographe du français ) is a catalog drawn up in 1989 and 1990 that recommends certain changes to the French spelling. However, the changes are in no way binding and are rarely used in daily practice (press, media, fiction, schools, universities, etc.). A logo has also been created to identify documents with the new spelling. This logo is hardly used either.
history
After various approaches to reform the French spelling over the course of the 20th century, the then Prime Minister Michel Rocard commissioned the Conseil supérieur de la langue française ("Supreme Council of the French Language"), which he had created, in which well-known experts in the French language (alongside French also French-speaking Belgians and Canadians ) were represented, with the elaboration of reform proposals for certain spellings of French. The Council made its recommendations in June 1990, which, after various consultations, were published by the French government in December 1990. In 1991 the new regulations were finally announced in the Journal officiel de la République française (Law Gazette).
Overall, the changes are aimed at eliminating unnecessary exceptions.
The new rules in detail
Plural formation
Individual words form a regular plural on -s: les scénarios (old: les scénarii ), les après-midis (old: les après-midi ), les matchs (old: les matches ).
Numerals
All components of a number are connected with a hyphen; In the previous spelling, this is not always the case: trois-cents (old: trois cents ), dix-mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-deux (old: dix mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-deux ).
Accented words
The partly etymologically based accent circonflexe on i and u is omitted in many cases: paraitre (old: paraître ), cout (old: coût ). However, it remains in some conjugation forms - passé simple ( nous vînmes , vous eûtes ), imparfait du subjonctif ( qu'il dût , qu'elle fît ) - and for lexical differentiation, e.g. B. sûr "safe" sur "on".
Trema on the u
In the combinations -gui- and -gue- , the trema is preferred to the u : aigüe , ambigüité (old: aiguë and ambiguïté ).
Hyphenated words
Some compound words with a hyphen are merged into one word: portemonnaie (old: porte-monnaie ) analogous to the existing spelling portefeuille .
conjugation
The conjugation of verbs ending in -eler and -eter follows the general rule according to the pattern acheter > il achète : amonceler > il amoncèle (old: il amoncelle ). Exceptions are the verbs appeler and jeter and their derivatives (e.g. rappeler , épeler ; rejeter ), which double the last consonant in certain cases (e.g. il appelle ).
Individual cases
In individual cases, a spelling is adapted to existing patterns: évènement (old: événement ) based on the spelling avènement and the pronunciation; dissout (old: dissous ) based on the feminine form dissoute ; assoir (old: asseoir ) based on il s'assoit .
Foreign words
Some foreign words are given an accent that corresponds to the pronunciation: révolver (old: revolver ).