Tribune des 50 Romands: «No to spelling reform».»

Le Regard Libre N° 78 - Tribune collective (list of signatories at the end)

Spelling reforms have been around since the end of the last century. However, these simplifications have never succeeded in gaining acceptance because, in the end, traditional spelling, although sometimes surprising, doesn't bother many people. It changes in step with social and scientific developments. Today, however, we no longer intend to rely on usage, the ultimate legislator, but rather to authoritatively impose changes. «They? The Conférence intercantonale de l'instruction publique de Suisse romande et du Tessin (CIIP), which is appealing to the Académie française. The Académie française is opposed to any compulsory spelling regulations, although it does accept two spellings in certain cases.

We, the undersigned, oppose the implementation of this «rectified spelling».

It's not up to the state to intervene in human knowledge, just as it's not up to the state to rewrite history, philosophy or music. School policy should promote the language and make people love it, which it is already failing to do. A language belongs to those who use it, not to a small coterie who have no authority to change it. If spelling could be «rectified» by the arbitrary decision of a few local politicians, how could we then explain to young people that spelling is important when it can so easily be attacked? What future would there be for the remaining prestige that this common value still retains, at a time when the world is complaining about an era of decaying values?

Because language is more than just a tool. Before being an instrument of communication, language is a place of life. It's a rich, resonant crucible in which a part of the individual is forged. As a mother tongue, language is first and foremost a matrix: in it, we find meaning in what happens to us, because we can name our ups and downs, make them mean something, give them a reason for being, keep the night at bay, write it down. What's more, language offers a rigid code: boxes are there, reserved, and each person can fill in this spelling code according to his or her own story. Language helps to bring order to the world, inside and out. It organizes thought and articulates the elements of reflection. It offers the pleasure of understanding, the happiness that sometimes makes you want to immerse yourself in sentences, verses or simply the letters that organize themselves.

Because language is music, the child who acquires it, then the adult who masters it, likes to play it like an instrument. Endless imitation of words, then motifs, taken from the mouth of another, the pleasure of repeating rhythmic phrases! The melody of childhood words, place names and curious spellings, still thrilling today! The whole body passes into the language to join the soul, and this is what we call the «voice». In the voice, a seduction appears, and soon a bewitchment. In fact, this is what the Greeks called «logos». They were the first to discover the metaphysics of language, which is why literature exists, and not simply communication, as in seals or marmots. What a far cry from the credo of simplifying our language as if it were an overly complex accessory! To touch language, especially the circumflex accent, is to attack something older than oneself, history. We're part of a language, just as we're part of a country: let's give usage time to do its slow, decanting work.

List of signatories:

Jean Romain, philosopher, writer, PLR member of the Geneva parliament, former president of the Grand Council, author of the petition «Rectifying spelling? No thanks!»

Marc Bonnant, lawyer, winner of the 2017 «Prix du rayonnement français» and «Best living French-speaking speaker» at the "Nuit de l'éloquence" (2016)

Pascal Couchepin, former federal councillor

Jacques Pilet, journalist and writer, founder of New Daily (now Le Temps) and L'Hebdo, co-founder of bonpourlatete.com

Pascal Vandenberghe, Payot CEO

Léonard Gianadda, President of the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Officer of the Légion d'honneur, Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, member of the Institut de France.

Monique Rey, writer, former literature teacher, President of the Alliance française de Fribourg

Daniel Sangsue, writer, professor emeritus of French literature at the University of Neuchâtel

Jean-Michel Olivier, writer, Prix Interallié 2011

Marie-Hélène Miauton, columnist and essayist

Slobodan Despot, writer, journalist and publisher

Ivan Slatkine, publisher

Raymond Delley, writer and former lecturer in French literature at the University of Fribourg

Guy Mettan, journalist, essayist and member of the Geneva parliament 

Bernard Campiche, publisher

Stéphane Garelli, economist and columnist, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the newspaper Le Temps

Oskar Freysinger, author, songwriter, former National Councillor and State Councillor of the Valais UDC

Bertrand Reich, lawyer, writer, President of PLR Geneva

Roland Jaccard, writer, essayist, journalist (former columnist for the newspaper Le Monde), former publisher

Marco Polli, actor, director, former teacher and ex-president of the Union du corps enseignant secondaire genevois and of the Commission Langues Vivantes.

François-Xavier Putallaz, philosopher, full professor at the University of Fribourg

Olivier Meuwly, historian and essayist

Jean-François Fournier, writer and journalist

Jean-Hugues Schulé, journalist and columnist

Yves Tabin, former judge

Olivier Beetschen, writer

Julien Sansonnens, writer and former Member of Parliament

Olivier Pillevuit, writer and physician

Gilbert Pingeon, writer

Cathy Sierro, librarian

Pierre Béguin, writer

Denis Ramelet, independent bookseller

Laurent Galley, writer

Edna Favre, teacher

Michel Siggen, philosophy teacher

Fabienne Héritier, author and teacher

Stéphane Marti, former professor of literature

Sylvie-Françoise Burgstaller, former French teacher

Olivier Français, Vaud State Councillor PLR

Cyrille Fauchère, Doctor of Letters, scientific associate at the University of Fribourg, UDC member of parliament for the Valais region

Delphine Bachmann, President of PDC Genève

Philippe Bauer, lawyer, State Councillor of Neuchâtel PLR

Jean-Marc Guinchard, Geneva PDC member of parliament

Philippe Nantermod, lawyer, PLR national councillor from Valais

Yves Nidegger, lawyer, UDC national councillor for Geneva

Olivier Feller, lawyer, PLR National Councillor for the Canton of Vaud

Salika Wenger, Geneva MP PC (Communist)

Félicien Monnier, lawyer, columnist, president of the Ligue vaudoise

Leopold d'Arenberg, Managing Director of the Arenberg Foundation

Paul-Arthur Treyvaud, lawyer, former member of Geneva's PLR parliament

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