There is a wonderful passage in Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” about the war between Little-Endians in Lilliput and Big-Endians in Blefuscu over how to open a hard-boiled egg. It would be ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
New reforms to the French language say its speakers should end use of the circumflex in some words. Purists aren’t happy. For over 380 years, l’Académie française has been the protector and arbiter of ...
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 ...
You know how it is: you’re typing your magnum opus and you’re in full flow. But you have some German names or French mots justes and they have pesky accents on them. Now just where was that umlaut ...