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Letters

Vol. 18 No. 5 · 7 March 1996

From Robin Hope

The review by John Sturrock of L’Accent du souvenir by Bernard Cerquiglini (LRB, 4 January) reminds me that the proposed dropping of this adornment to the French language, vetoed by Mitterrand, would have deprived French speakers of a useful little offensive weapon. My late brother Francis, staying with a French family to improve his knowledge of the language, was helping himself to cheese at dinner. The plateau included a wedge of brie, and the inexperienced Englishman, instead of slicing along the side, cut off the point, or nose. His hostess, exercising that special French skill in making foreign visitors feel at ease, remarked: ‘Je n’ ai jamais vu personne qui découpât comme ça le nez d’un brie.’ Francis said that he distinctly heard, in the air above the family dining-table, the sharp hiss of the circumflex over the third person singular of the past subjunctive.

Robin Hope
Todi, Italy

Vol. 18 No. 6 · 21 March 1996

From Ormond Uren

As an examiner some years ago for the London University BA Honours in French we had a marking scheme: three marks off for a serious grammatical mistake, two for something less heinous and one – or was it a mere half-mark? – for the omission of an accent. My co-examiner, overriding my objections, was adamant that one exception be made to this rule. Omission of the circumflex (Letters, 7 March) on the past subjunctive (il mît) which distinguishes it from the simple past (il mit) must entail the forfeit of the full three marks.

Ormond Uren
London NW5