New editions of textbooks in France will look a little different. References to onions? You'll see the word ognon rather than oignon. A tale about a centipede? The many-legged insect will be known as ...

Like the living creatures who speak them, languages evolve over time. New words are constantly added to dictionaries, old ones fade out of fashion and meanings shift. But linguistic changes aren't ...

A controversy brewing in France over a decision to eliminate the circumflex highlights fears about ‘English taking over’. Agnes Poirier takes a closer look. It took France completely by surprise. On 4 ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

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 ...

School of Advanced Study, University of London and University of London provide funding as members of The Conversation UK. Politicians, particularly those on the right and far-right, voiced their ...

Suggested new spellings for more than 2,000 French words have sparked controversy. The Academie Francaise proposed changes in 1990, including the deletion of the circumflex accent (ˆ) and hyphens in ...

There was an almighty uproar on Thursday when the French learned the circumflex was on its way out and hundreds of words were to be spelled differently. But it appears to be a huge storm in an old tea ...

The diacritical mark, that puzzling addition to a recognisable letter, arrived in my life at about the age of six, like an insect lighting on the page of a school textbook. Only it happened out of ...