Saturday 6 February 2016

Circumflex (February)


English is free of diacritics and graciously lives with them when they arrive as imports. Acute and grave are okay, probably because we’ve lived with them since Hastings. Umlaut always looks out of place while hachek and tilde quietly drop from sight. No arguments, unlike the French who this February have decided to drop the circumflex. At school we called it the hat. Though approved by the Academy, the French have blown their stack. Why teach children spelling they must unlearn later, goes one argument but the main appeal is to national pride, their very soul. No stealthy Anglicisation! #JeSuisCirconflexe

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