French orthography

French orthographyencompasses thespellingandpunctuationof theFrench language. It is based on a combination ofphonemicand historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation ofOld Frenchc.1100–1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Even in the late 17th century, with the publication of thefirst French dictionaryby theAcadémie française, there were attempts toreform French orthography.
This has resulted in a complicated relationship between spelling and sound, especially for vowels; a multitude ofsilent letters; and manyhomophones, e.g.saint/sein/sain/seing/ceins/ceint(all pronounced[sɛ̃]) andsang/sans/cent(all pronounced[sɑ̃]). This is conspicuous in verbs:parles(you speak),parle(I speak / one speaks) andparlent(they speak) all sound like[paʁl]. Later attempts to respell some words in accordance with theirLatinetymologies further increased the number of silent letters (e.g.,tempsvs. oldertans– compare English "tense", which reflects the original spelling – andvingtvs. oldervint).
Nevertheless, there are rules governing French orthography which allow for a reasonable degree of accuracy when pronouncing French words from their written forms. The reverse operation, producing written forms from pronunciation, is much more ambiguous. The French alphabet uses a number ofdiacritics, including thecircumflex,diaeresis,acute, andgraveaccents, as well asligatures. Asystem of braillehas been developed for people who are visually impaired.
The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of theLatin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with fivediacriticsand twoorthographicligatures.
⟨w⟩and⟨k⟩are rarely used except inloanwordsand regional words./w/is usually written⟨ou⟩;/k/is usually written⟨c⟩anywhere but before⟨e, i, y⟩,⟨qu⟩before⟨e, i, y⟩, and sometimes⟨que⟩at the ends of words. However,⟨k⟩is common in the metric prefix kilo- (originally from Greekχίλιαkhilia"a thousand"), e.g.kilogramme,kilomètre,kilowatt,kilohertz.
Thediacriticsused in French orthography are theacute accent(⟨◌́⟩;accent aigu), thegrave accent(⟨◌̀⟩;accent grave), thecircumflex(⟨◌̂⟩;accent circonflexe), thediaeresis(⟨◌̈⟩;tréma), and thecedilla(⟨◌̧⟩;cédille). Diacritics have no effect on the primary alphabetical order.
Atilde(⟨◌̃⟩) above⟨n⟩is occasionally used in French for words and names ofSpanishorigin that have been incorporated into the language (e.g.,El Niño,piñata). Like the other diacritics, the tilde has no impact on the primary alphabetical order.
Diacritics are often omitted on capital letters, mainly for technical reasons (not present onAZERTYkeyboards). However both theAcadémie françaiseand theOffice québécois de la langue françaisereject this usage and confirm that "in French, the accent has full orthographic value",except for acronyms but not for abbreviations (e.g.,CEE,ALENA, butÉ.-U.).Nevertheless, diacritics are often ignored in word games, includingcrosswords,Scrabble, andDes chiffres et des lettres.
Theligatures⟨æ⟩and⟨œ⟩are part of French orthography. Forcollation, these ligatures are treated like the sequences⟨ae⟩and⟨oe⟩respectively.
⟨æ⟩(French:e dans l'a,a-e entrelacéora, e collés/liés) is rare, appearing only in some words of Latin and Greek origin liketænia,ex æquo,cæcum,æthuse(as nameddog’s parsley).It generally represents the vowel/e/, like⟨é⟩.
The sequence⟨ae⟩appears in loanwords where both sounds are heard, as inmaestroandpaella.
⟨œ⟩(French:e dans l'o,o-e entrelacéoro et e collés/liés) is a mandatory contraction of⟨oe⟩in certain words. Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation/œ/or/ø/, e.g.chœur"choir"/kœʁ/,cœur"heart"/kœʁ/,mœurs"moods (related to moral)"/mœʁ,mœʁs/,nœud"knot"/nø/,sœur"sister"/sœʁ/,œuf"egg"/œf/,œuvre"work (of art)"/œvʁ/,vœu"vow"/vø/. It usually appears in the combination⟨œu⟩;œil/œj/"eye" is an exception. Many of these words were originally written with thedigraph⟨eu⟩; the⟨o⟩in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to imitate the Latin spelling:Latin:bovem> Old Frenchbuef/beuf> Modern Frenchbœuf.
⟨œ⟩is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong⟨οι⟩, e.g.cœlacanthe"coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with/e/, but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with/ø/has taken hold, e.g.œsophage/ezɔfaʒ/or/øzɔfaʒ/,Œdipe/edip/or/ødip/etc. The pronunciation with/e/is often seen to be more correct.
When⟨œ⟩is found after⟨c⟩, the⟨c⟩can be pronounced/k/in some cases (cœur), or/s/in others (cœlacanthe).
⟨œ⟩is not used when both letters contribute different sounds. For example, when⟨o⟩is part of a prefix (coexister), or when⟨e⟩is part of a suffix (minoen), or in the wordmoelleand its derivatives.
French digraphs and trigraphs have both historical and phonological origins. In the first case, it is a vestige of the spelling in the word's original language (usually Latin or Greek) maintained in modern French, e.g. the use of⟨ph⟩intéléphone,⟨th⟩inthéorème, or⟨ch⟩inchaotique. In the second case, a digraph is due to an archaic pronunciation, such as⟨eu⟩,⟨au⟩,⟨oi⟩,⟨ai⟩, and⟨œu⟩, or is merely a convenient way to expand the twenty-six-letter alphabet to cover all relevant phonemes, as in⟨ch⟩,⟨on⟩,⟨an⟩,⟨ou⟩,⟨un⟩, and⟨in⟩. Some cases are a mixture of these or are used for purely pragmatic reasons, such as⟨ge⟩for/ʒ/inil mangeait('he ate'), where the⟨e⟩serves to indicate a "soft"⟨g⟩inherent in the verb's root, similar to the significance of a cedilla to⟨c⟩.
Some exceptions apply to the rules governing the pronunciation of word-final consonants. SeeLiaison (French)for details.
The spelling of French words of Greek origin is complicated by a number of digraphs which originated in theLatintranscriptions. The digraphs⟨ph, th, ch⟩normally represent/f,t,k/, respectively, in Greek loanwords; and the ligatures⟨æ⟩and⟨œ⟩in Greek loanwords represent the same vowel as⟨é⟩(/e/). Further, many words in theinternational scientific vocabularywere constructed in French from Greek roots and have kept their digraphs (e.g.stratosphère,photographie).
TheOaths of Strasbourgfrom 842 is the earliest text written in the early form of French called Romance or Gallo-Romance.
The CelticGaulish languageof the inhabitants ofGauldisappeared progressively over the course of Roman rule as the Latin language began to replace it.Vulgar Latin, a generally lower register ofClassical Latinspoken by the Roman soldiers, merchants and even by patricians in quotidian speech, was adopted by the natives and evolved slowly, taking the forms of different spoken Roman vernaculars according to the region of the empire.
Eventually the different forms of Vulgar Latin in what is now France evolved into three branches in theGallo-Romancelanguage sub-family, thelangues d'oïlnorth of theLoire, thelangues d'ocin the south, and theFranco-Provençal languagesin part of the east.
In the 9th century, the Romance vernaculars were already quite far from Latin. For example, to understand theBible, written in Latin, footnotes were necessary. The languages found in themanuscriptsdating from the 9th century to the 13th century form what is known asOld French(ancien français). With consolidation of royal power, beginning in the 13th century, theFrancienvernacular, thelangue d'oilvariety then in usage in theÎle-de-France(region around Paris), took, little by little, over the other languages and evolved toward Classic French. These languages continued to evolve until Middle French (moyen français) emerged, in the 14th century to the 16th century.
During theMiddle Frenchperiod (c.1300–1600), modern spelling practices were largely established. This happened especially during the 16th century, under the influence of printers. The overall trend was towards continuity with Old French spelling, although some changes were made under the influence of changed pronunciation habits; for example, the Old French distinction between the diphthongs⟨eu⟩and⟨ue⟩was eliminated in favor of consistent⟨eu⟩,as both diphthongs had come to be pronounced/ø/or/œ/(depending on the surrounding sounds). However, many other distinctions that had become equally superfluous were maintained, e.g. between⟨s⟩and soft⟨c⟩or between⟨ai⟩and⟨ei⟩. It is likely that etymology was the guiding factor here: the distinctions⟨s/c⟩and⟨ai/ei⟩reflect corresponding distinctions in the spelling of the underlying Latin words, whereas no such distinction exists in the case of⟨eu/ue⟩.
This period also saw the development of some explicitly etymological spellings, e.g.temps("time"),vingt("twenty") andpoids("weight") (note that in many cases, the etymologizing was sloppy or occasionally completely incorrect;vingtreflects Latinviginti, with the⟨g⟩in the wrong place, andpoidsactually comes from Latinpensum, with no⟨d⟩at all; the spellingpoidsis due to an incorrect derivation from Latinpondus). The trend towards etymologizing sometimes produced absurd (and generally rejected) spellings such assçapvoirfor normalsavoir("to know"), which attempted to combine Latinsapere("to be wise", the correct origin ofsavoir) withscire("to know").
Modern French spelling was codified in the late 17th century by the Académie française, based largely on previously established spelling conventions. Some reforms have occurred since then, but most have been fairly minor. The most significant changes have been:
In October 1989, Michel Rocard, then-Prime Minister of France, established the High Council of the French Language (Conseil supérieur de la langue française) in Paris. He designated experts –  among them linguists, representatives of the Académie française and lexicographers –  to propose standardizing several points, a few of those points being:
Quickly, the experts set to work. Their conclusions were submitted to Belgian and Québécois linguistic political organizations. They were likewise submitted to the Académie française, which endorsed them unanimously, saying: 
"Current orthography remains that of usage, and the 'recommendations' of the High Council of the French language only enter into play with words that may be written in a different manner without being considered as incorrect or as faults."
The changes were published in theJournal officiel de la République françaisein December 1990. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.
In France and Belgium, theexclamation mark,question mark,semicolon,colon, percentage mark, currency symbols,hash, andguillemetall require a thin space between the punctuation mark and the material it adjoins. Outside of France and Belgium, this rule is often ignored. Computer software may aid or hinder the application of this rule, depending on the degree oflocalisation, as it is marked differently from most other Western punctuation.
The hyphen in French has a particular use in geographic names that is not found in English.
Traditionally, the "specific" part of placenames, street names, and organization names are hyphenated (usuallynamesakes).For instance,laplace de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad(Square of theBattle of Stalingrad[la bataille de Stalingrad]); 
andl’université Blaise-Pascal(named afterBlaise Pascal). 
Likewise,Pas-de-Calaisis a French department; the eponymouspas(strait) islepas de Calais.
This rule is not uniformly observed in official names, e.g., eitherlaCôte-d'Ivoireorla Côte d'Ivoire, and usuallylaCôte d'Azurhas no hyphens. 
The names ofMontreal Metro stationsare consistently hyphenated when suitable, but those ofParis Métro stationsmostly ignore this rule. (For more examples, seeTrait d'union.)