French Influences on English Spelling

This page is for categorizing and recording the influences that French and other external spelling systems have had on the spelling of English, in order to better evaluate which spellings ought to be changed from the Modern English Standard, and which ought to be retained.

Elements of English spelling that derive from French influence:

The use of “soft” c and g (except in dg)

Soft c:

used in words like ice

distinguishes ice from wise

Soft g:

most words with this are from French anyway

Exception: words like “bridge”

The use of “gu” to represent a hard “g” sound:

-tongue

The use of the digraph “ch” (and by extension, the trigraph “tch”)

Previously, the simple letter “c” was used to represent this sound

The use of the digraph “qu” instead of “cw”

The use of the digraph “ue” and the letter “long u” in place of the digraph “eu/ew”

-in native English words, this sound always derives from a diphthong, and 	therefore should properly always be written with “eu/ew”