French Spelling Changes, 26 Years in the Making, Cause a Fracas
By DAN BILEFSKY

LONDON — In France, the land of Molière, questions of language are so sacred that every Thursday the “immortals,” the guardians of the French language at the Académie Française, meet to discuss — among other things — proposed changes to the institution’s vaunted dictionary.

The last complete edition of the dictionary was published in 1935, according to the academy, and changes evolve over centuries. The newest complete edition is not finished — the authors have reached the letter R.

So it was perhaps not surprising that tempers flared this week after a news report from the broadcaster TF1 that changes were afoot to cut back the circumflex accent, known as “the hat,” from French-language textbooks.

Adding to the horror, the report said that as of September, when the new school year began, teachers would also have to make changes affecting about 2,400 French words, including spelling oignon — or onion — as ognon.

Among the words appropriated from English, news reports noted, the hyphen in week-end would be eliminated, along with the hyphen in tictac (now tic-tac, or ticking, like a clock), while leader would be given a French makeover and be spelled leadeur. Nénuphar, or water lily, would be spelled nénufar.

The reaction on social media was harsh and swift, as intellectuals, teachers and traditionalists took to Twitter to vent their anger at what many saw as an attack on centuries of culture and history.

In a sign of the frenzy inspired by the changes, “Je suis circumflex” became a popular hashtag on Twitter — an allusion to “Je suis Charlie,” the rallying cry used to show solidarity after the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists early last year.

One Twitter user called Guillaume C. reacted to the spelling changes, including the pruning of the circumflex, as a personal affront. “I started the day with a bit of vomit in my mouth,” he wrote on Twitter.

Others were quick to warn of the linguistic perils of losing the circumflex to distinguish between sûr, or sure, an adjective, and, sur, or on, a preposition.

“I am sure your sister is well” and “I am on top of your sister she is well” are not the same thing,” wrote another Twitter user, using a colloquial form of French.

In fact, the circumflex is becoming optional on i’s and u’s, and only on those words that do not need it. It will remain mandatory in several French verb tenses and when there is a clear distinction in meaning.

Joining the revolt, the National Inter-University Union, a right-leaning student group published a petition accusing the education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, of abusing her “authority” to overturn the rules for spelling in French.

Unfortunately for them, Le Monde noted, the students incorrectly conjugated the verb “to authorize,” misspelling the word.

But for all the outrage, the Education Ministry said that the changes were nothing new and that, in fact, they had been approved by the Académie Française in 1990 as optional recommendations that many textbooks and schools had chosen to ignore.

In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of Louis XIII, established the Académie Française to rule on the usage of the French language.

The 1990 changes that caused all the fuss this week also came up in 2008, when the Education Ministry published a bulletin urging schools to put them in place.

Nicolas Sarkozy was president at the time of that bulletin, which was largely ignored. Another bulletin issued by the ministry to schools in 2015 — this time during the presidency of François Hollande, a Socialist, received a similarly muted reaction.

This latest debate appears to have been reignited when education officials again this year reiterated their plea. Only this time, publishers of textbooks decided to embrace them.

Patrick Vannier, who works in the elite dictionary service of the Académie Française, said by phone from Paris that the backlash appeared to be overwrought. But he said he was heartened that in the age of the iPhone, the French remained so wedded to their dictionaries.

“I am happy that this shows the extent to which the French are still attached to their language,” he said. He added, “It also shows that there is a lack of historical perspective and that people think that changes of language are fixed for all eternity, when, in, fact, they evolve.”

Indeed, it is a sign of the times that attitudes toward language in France are shifting. Three years ago, when a proposed law was introduced to allow French universities to teach more courses in English, one leading intellectual called it a “suicide project.”

But last year, France’s minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin, said French was not in need of protection from foreign influences, including English. Her words were welcomed by modernizers.

After all, she is the leadeur of the ministry.

捍衛正統法語！ 拼字簡化惹眾怒

法國近期最熱門的話題之一，是拼字改革。今年秋季學期的課程手冊將納入一些簡化後的法語單字，但以法語為傲的法國人多數不支持這項改革，矢言捍衛正統法語。

經過多年研議，法語高等委員會（CSLF）近期提出一些簡化拼字的建議，例如「porte-monnaie」改為「portemonnaie」（零錢包），省略複合詞中間的連結符號；或者「nenuphar」改為「nenufar」（睡蓮）、「oignon」改為「ognon」（洋蔥），讓拼字與發音更一致；另外還包括減少特例、省略一些揚抑符（circonflexe）等。

這些簡化規則涉及約2400個單字，預計於今年秋季學期起列入教學課程。教育部表示，這項改革獲得法蘭西學院（Academie Francaise）支持。

成立於1634年的法蘭西學院是最權威的標準法語規範機構。

但法蘭西學院終身秘書卡黑當可斯（Helene Carrere d’Encausse）接受「費加洛報」（Le Figaro）訪問時說，法蘭西學院並未參與，且「立場從未改變，就是反對所有拼字改革，但有條件同意少數簡化，只是不得由官方強制，並且要經得起時間考驗」。

教育部長瓦洛貝卡森（Najat Vallaud-Belkacem）則對法蘭西學院的說法表達「訝異」，她說，拼字修改之處都已納入第9版的法蘭西學院字典。

法國人以法語為傲，拼字和用詞具有重要地位，但近年偶見媒體報導指學童拼字程度漸漸低落。根據教育部2009年調查，法國學生拼字、文法程度，30年來明顯持續弱化。

根據費加洛報報導，土倫大學（Universite de Toulon）研究員杜亞耶（Loic Droualliere）比較了1994年到2012年的大學一年級生考卷，發現拼字錯誤率明顯增加，平均從每百字出現2.73個錯字惡化到5.92個錯字。

這波拼字改革普遍不受民眾支持，一名網路使用者在推特（Twitter）發文說，「不該因為一些人不好好學習，就本末倒置地去簡化拼字」。

雜誌「新觀察家」（L’Obs）委託民調機構調查，82%法國人不贊成拼字改革，推特上也出現「我是揚抑符」（#JeSuisCirconflexe）的標籤風潮，還有人發起「別碰我的揚抑符！」口號。

不過，雖然多數人反對簡化拼字，民調機構同時推出一項拼字測驗，全部答對的受試者只有18%。法國雜誌《觀點》去年調查也顯示，有73%法國人認為法語很難學，不少歸咎於法文串字艱深。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/world/europe/french-spelling-changes-26-years-in-the-making-cause-a-fracas.html

2016-02-25 03:15 世界日報 編譯中心