The Scientific Council of National Education in France advocates for a deep reform of French orthography. This recommendation comes from their report, "Rationaliser l'orthographe du français pour mieux l'enseigner" [Rationalizing French spelling for better teaching], published in June 2024.
The report, led by researcher Liliane Sprenger-Charolles, highlights that French is easier to read than to write. This characteristic became problematic in the 19th century with mass education focused on writing skills. The team included Anne Abeillé and Bernard Cerquiglini.
French has approximately 16 phonetic vowels but only six alphabetic vowels. This forces the use of accents and combinations like "ou", "an", "un", "é", "ê", and "à". Linguists have demonstrated that these choices affect reading and writing differently.
Children quickly learn reading conventions, easily recognizing words like "onze" [eleven], "enfant" [child], or pseudo-words like "tople". However, writing is more challenging due to numerous graphemes (ways to write sounds) that lack logical consistency. This is compounded by grammatical inflections that are not pronounced.
The current orthography follows varied and contradictory conventions. For example, the double 'n' in "sonner" [to ring] was logical when it was pronounced "son-ner" [son-ner]. Now, it's pronounced "so-ner" [so-ner], while newer derivatives like "sonate" [sonata] only have one 'n'.
The report argues that the difficulty in mastering French orthography hinders education. The complexity is a result of intergenerational neglect, with only minor reforms since 1990. The gap between spoken and written French continues to widen.
The report suggests modernizing French writing through an international commission. This would involve addressing the linguistic fossils that burden the education system. The goal is to create a more accessible and democratic writing system.