Café or Cafe?
Out of context: Reply #36
- Started
- Last post
- 51 Responses
- Baskerville0
From my dissertation entitled 'The Evolution of the Character Set' –
It is now very common to see the word café used without the acute accent: cafe. It is still obvious what is meant by the word in English as we have reappropriated the French word but in France would this be acceptable? The style guide for the Guardian newspaper says on the subject of accents: 'include all accents on French words (but not anglisicised French words such as cafe; exception: exposé, to avoid confusion with expose), and umlauts on German words. Don not use accents on other languages.'
... Other words with foreign origins have also, over time, had their original spellings and compositions forgotten. In Old English words of Greek origin which contained a letter correspoinding to the Greek 'alpha iota' were spelled with an aesc: æ. Words such as encyclopaedia should therefore be spelled 'encyclopædia'. Amercians have now dropped the aesc completely and spell the word encyclopedia.
It is important to remeber that, as Marshall McLuhan states, 'Print altered not only the spelling and grammar but the accentuation and inflection of languages, and made bad grammar possible.'