Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Quebec spelling is Benoît as well.
|
With the spelling reform of the 1990s you can now write all these words without the circumflex accent, but I don't quite like it and I prefer to write them with the accent (maître instead of maitre, s'il-vous-plaît instead of s'il-vous-plait, connaît instead of connait, etc).
The circumflex accent is usually an accent that shows a "s" that stopped being pronounced at the end of the Middle Ages, and was latter removed from the spelling altogether, and replaced by the ^ on the preceding vowel. English, which is even more conservative than French in its spelling, has preserved those ancient "s", hence forêt, from forest in the Middle Ages (still spelled like that in English), or bête, from beste, spelled beast in English, or fête, from feste, spelled feast in English, etc.
Sometimes the circumflex is entirely artificial and was placed there for no good reason (i.e. there was no "s" in the Middle Ages after that vowel), but the spelling reform from the 1990s decided to remove all circumflex accents, even those which really indicated an ancien "s". This is too extreme.
In the case of Benoît, it really indicates the presence of an ancient "s". That given name was spelled (and pronounced) Benoist during the Middle Ages. That old Medieval spelling is still found in the family name "Benoist".