Chapter 10
208 Words
AT THE ACADEMY.
Session of November 23, 1843.
CHARLES NODIER.--The Academy, yielding to custom,
has suppressed universally the double consonant in verbs
where this consonant supplanted euphoniously the ~d~ of the
radical ~ad~.
MYSELF.--I avow my profound ignorance. I had no
idea that custom had effected this suppression and that
the Academy had sanctioned it. Thus one should no
longer write ~atteindre, approuver, appeler, apprehender~,
etc., but ~ateindre, aprouver, apeler, apr******~?
M. VICTOR COUSIN.--I desire to point out to M. Hugo
that the alterations of which he complains come from the
movement of the language, which is nothing else than decadence.
MYSELF.--M. Cousin having addressed a personal observation
to me, I beg to point out to him in turn that
his opinion is, in my estimation, merely an opinion and
nothing more. I may add that, as I view it, "movement
of the language" and decadence have nothing in common.
Nothing could be more distinct than these two things.
Movement in no way proves decadence. The language
has been moving since the first day of its formation; can
it be said to be deteriorating? Movement is life; decadence
is death.
M. COUSIN.--The decadence of the French language began in 1789.
MYSELF.--At what hour, if you please?
- Writer
