Re: French verb conjugation: "je harcèle"? or "je harcelle"?

On Mar 22, 8:15 am, na...@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Christian Weisgerber) wrote:
Sonja Elen Kisa  <sonj...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Oh, it's because of the spelling reforms of 1990:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_French_orthography#Schwa_chan...

No, "je harcelle" would be traditional spelling and "je harcèle"
the Académie's new suggestion.  However, the Robert Micro has "je
harcèle", but makes no mention of the 1990 reform and sticks to
unambiguously traditional spellings (aiguë, événement, ...) throughout.

Let's see...
The latest edition of Grevisse says that
- appeler, rappeler, chanceler, renouveler, ruisseler, jeter and their
  family double the consonant;
- celer, geler, peler, acheter and their family use the grave accent;

And: "Pour les autres verbes, il y a beaucoup d'hésitations, dans
les dict. et/ou dans l'usage."  It then goes on and explains how
the Académie has been moving towards -èle and -ète since the 1970s.

_Oxford Hachette_3rd ed. has it as belonging with verbs of
the 17th conjugation, where "è" occurs before a silent syllable:
je harcèle, harcèles, harcèle, harcèlent (all present indicative),
je harcèlerai ... (future). "E" otherwise is used: nous harcelon,
harcelez (pres. ind.), je harcelais (imperfect), je harcelai (past
historic).

Christopher Ingham
.