Use of The Circumflex in French - Analogical and Idiopathic Cases

Analogical and Idiopathic Cases

Some circumflexes appear for no known reason. It is thought to give words an air of prestige, like a crown (thus trône, prône, suprême and voûte).

Linguistic interference sometimes accounts for the presence of a circumflex. This is the case in the first person plural of the preterite indicative (or passé simple), which adds a circumflex by association with the second person plural, thus:

• Latin cantavistis → OF chantastes → chantâtes (after the muting of the interposing /s/)
• Latin cantavimus → OF chantames → chantâmes (by interference with chantâtes).

All incidences of the first and second persons plural of the preterite take the circumflex in the conjugation ending except the verb haïr, due to its necessary dieresis (nous haïmes, vous haïtes).