What is the circumflex accent? Indicated by the sign ^, it is placed over a vowel to show that the vowel or syllable containing it must be pronounced in a certain way. In French, the vowel so marked has a certain grave and long sound quality. The circumflex accent adds a certain musicality to a word; some would argue it confers poetry to words. More practically, it can also change the meaning of a word. ‘Mûr’ means ‘mature’, while ‘mur’ means ‘wall’; ‘jeûne’ means fasting while ‘jeune’ means young.

The spelling reform put forward in 1990 by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française (High Council of the French Language), and vetted by the Académie Française, never actually aimed to kill the circumflex or to become compulsory. It originally proposed to “fix some anomalies” and to somehow standardise and simplify certain quirks of the French language. For instance, it suggested to remove the circumflex from above the letters ‘i’ and ‘u’ where the accent does not change the pronunciation nor the meaning of the word, as in ‘paraître’ (to appear) or ‘coût’ (cost). It also recommended to regroup compound nouns and get rid of the hyphen as in ‘porte-monnaie’, thus becoming ‘portemonnaie’ (purse). ‘Compound nouns without a hyphen? Looks ugly and lazy’ was the universal reaction on social networks, as if it was an admission that textspeak is now the norm.

Word war

The French felt a pang in the heart at the thought of the disappearing circumflex and hyphens but the last straw came when they heard the suggestion that the ‘i' in ‘oignon’ (onion) should be dropped. The controversial Education Minister Najat Vallaut-Belkacem, attacked and accused on social networks of wanting to dumb down the French language, fought back by replying that the reform didn’t come from the Ministry but the Académie Française itself.

The Académie, in turn, snapped back that it had only approved certain aspects of the proposal issued by the High Council of the French Language, an independent body. It reminded the French public that it was always on the side of the language, against all spelling simplifications for the sake of it, and that the actual usage of a language couldn’t simply be passed by decrees and laws. In football, they would call this argument a draw.