Re: [css3-text][css3-fonts] 'text-transform' for Accents

Ambrose LI wrote:

> 2011/3/18 John Hudson <tiro@tiro.com>:
>> First of all, I'll note that I'm not familiar with any orthography in which
>> the presence of accent marks on uppercase letters is truly optional. There
>> was a myth going about for some time that this was the case with French, but
>> that was due to the mechanical limitations of the typewriter, and if one
>> consulted quality French publishing, the recommendations of the Imprimerie
>> nationale, or simply people's handwriting, the marks were always present on
>> uppercase letters.

> This has been written in lots of places including the Academie’s
> official web page. But I won’t call it a myth unless you still call it
> a myth when real native speakers did it and still do it. That is, I
> have seen native speakers leave them out when writing. As recent as a
> few months ago.

> Maybe a poor orthographic practice, but not a “myth”.

I consider it a myth -- in the sense of a widely held but 
unsubstantiated belief -- that this practice is 'correct', which is what 
I heard from various French people over the years. The extended form of 
the myth is that this is correct practice in France but not in Quebec, 
and I met people who had been taught this as a rule.

Yes, 'real native speakers' behave mythologically. :)

JH

Received on Friday, 8 April 2011 17:51:04 UTC