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Geofroy Tory

Note 129 — GEOFROY TORY

George Burnham Ives translation

The reform went even further than Tory suggested, for orthographic accents were invented, which have no other purpose than to distinguish words of the same sound but of different meaning; and therein it disregarded logic, for it not only did not distinguish in this way all words of the same sound (son, for example, which has three totally different meanings, received no accent), but it placed accents on words which had but one meaning,—déjà, for example; of what use is the grave accent on the a? Moreover, it placed accents in certain cases on words which in other cases have none. Thus it wrote 'votre ami et le nôtre,' and 'notre ami et le vôtre.'

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