Reforms of French orthography

French orthography was already (more or less) fixed and (from a phonological point of view) outdated when its lexicography developed in the late 17th century and the Académie française was mandated to establish an "official" prescriptive norm. Still, there was already much debate at the time opposing the tenets of a traditional, etymological orthography, and supporting those of a reformed, phonological transcription of the language.

César-Pierre Richelet chose the latter (reformed) option when he published the first monolingual French dictionary in 1680, but the Académie chose to adhere firmly to tradition in the first edition of its dictionary (1694).

Various other attempts at simplification followed, culminating in the "rectifications" of 6 December 1990.[1] Some more radical proposals also exist to simplify the existing writing system,[2] but they still fail to gather interest.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference academie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Examples of proposals include:[non-primary source needed]

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