Le 8 mai 1673, l’Académie française tranche en faveur de l’orthographe savante « qui distingue les gens de Lettres d’avec les Ignorants et les simples femmes ».
My translation:
The 8 of May, 1673, the French Academy decides in favor of a scholarly orthography “which distinguishes literary people from the ignorants and simple women”.
Yikes! That’s the basis of the “etymologic” or rather pseudo-etymologic orthography of French. The French Academy is still the authority for the French language, a remnant of the Ancient Régime. To my knowledge, they haven’t retracted this statement since and to my judgement they still adhere to it by their actions and decisions today.
I find that difficult to believe, would you happen to remember where you read this? I’m curious to know more about that.
Sure! Here’s a nice article by Mireille Elchacar, lexicologist and professor at TELUQ university.
The relevant portion:
My translation:
Yikes! That’s the basis of the “etymologic” or rather pseudo-etymologic orthography of French. The French Academy is still the authority for the French language, a remnant of the Ancient Régime. To my knowledge, they haven’t retracted this statement since and to my judgement they still adhere to it by their actions and decisions today.