Use of The Circumflex in French - Orthographic Reform

Orthographic Reform

Francophone experts, aware of the difficulty the circumflex represents and the inconsistency of its usage, proposed in 1990 a simplified orthography published in the Journal officiel de la République française and put forth that the circumflex over the letters u and i should be abolished except in cases where its absence would create ambiguities and homographs. These recommendations, widely criticized at the time of their introduction, have had no widespread adoption, but are encouraged by the Académie française.