Reforms Of French Orthography
The orthography of French was already more or less fixed and, from a phonological point of view, outdated when its lexicography developed in the late 17th century and the Académie française was mandated to establish an "official" prescriptive norm.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 those of a reformed, phonological transcription of the language.
César-Pierre Richelet chose the latter option when he published the first monolingual French dictionary in 1680, but the Académie chose to adhere firmly to the tradition, "that distinguishes men of letters from ignoramuses and simple women", in the first edition of its dictionary (1694).
It has since then accepted a few reforms and initiated, not always successfully, numerous others.
Read more about Reforms Of French Orthography: 16th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, The Rectifications of 1990
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