^^^

In a recent blog post, I discussed how the circumflex in French is often used to show the historical presence of the letter s in a word where it was dropped. Let’s delve deeper into this topic. Around the time of the Norman Conquest, the sound of s started to vanish before consonants in the middle of words, causing the preceding vowels to lengthen. To signify this change, the Académie Française introduced the circumflex in 1740. Here are some examples of this phenomenon:

• Fête and festival are perfect illustrations as they are both English words, one borrowed from modern French and the other from Old French
• Similarly, hotel (from French hôtel) and hostel (from Old French hostel)
• Pâté and paste
• Château and castle

You can see how this change has impacted these words. It’s fascinating to compare them!