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.
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.