If you happen to be writing in French about tasting oysters and onions on a weekend in August, things are about to change. Starting in September,schools in France will teach new spellings of some words in a bid to simplify the written language.
Under the spelling reforms, the circumflex over i and u (or î and û) in many words will be removed. This affects words such as “goûter” (to taste), “huître” (oyster), and “août” (August).
As well, the word “oignon” (onion) will lose its pesky and silent “i” to become “ognon.” And the French word “week-end,” borrowed from English, is among several that are dropping the hyphen.
The Académie française, the council on French language that decides such things, approved the changes to about 2,400 words in 1990, but it took 26 years for them to make their way to the school system.
However, despite this advance notice, many francophones aren’t pleased with the news that many words will be losing their beloved little hats. The hashtag #ReformeOrthographe was a worldwide Twitter trend on Thursday morning.
Some people added extra, unneeded circumflexes to compensate for the loss.