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It has been a long time time since I studied French in school, but I am fairly sure I learned that ordinal numbers are spelled with an accent grave (deuxième, troisième, etc.), and a cursory online search seems to confirm this. However, I was recently looking at some printed French sheet music from the 18th century (François Couperin's Les goûts-réunis, available in PDF form at IMSLP) in which the titles of successive pieces are apparently spelled with an accent aigu: Cinquiéme concert, Sixiéme concert, etc.:

Cinquiéme Concert

Has the accepted spelling of ordinal numbers changed since this music was printed in 1724? Or is this somehow an artifact of the kind of calligraphy used for the titles?

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The acute accent is non standard, even for that time.

The trema on réunis and the various words using a é found in this document show that his writer was uneasy with grave accents and was not attaching too much importance to the spelling rules which weren't as standardized and rigid as they became later anyway.

L'accent aigu est atypique, même pour l'époque.

Le tréma sur « réunis » et les divers mots utilisant un « é » présents dans ce document montrent que son rédacteur était fâché avec les accents graves et n'attachait pas une importance exagérée à l'orthographe qui n'était de toute façon pas aussi standardisée et figée qu'elle ne le deviendra par la suite.

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  • Thank you for your answer (I apologise for responding in English). In this particular case, I find it surprising that the author or engraver would not have considered correct orthography important: the musical notation in Couperin's scores, at least, is famous for its precision and detail.
    – user8658
    Nov 17, 2015 at 20:28
  • However, I am sure you are correct that spelling was less rigidly standardised in this period. I would be interested to see if there are similar spelling or typesetting differences in Couperin's printed book, L'art de toucher le clavecin.
    – user8658
    Nov 17, 2015 at 20:31
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Quelque fois le cassetin de la casse était vide, tous les caractères en plomb de la taille étaient déjà utilisés, alors le typographe prenait le caractère le plus proche.

D'autres fois il manquait un t, pour une terminaisons en '-ette', alors on la changeait en '-ète' et certaines de ces modifications ont survécu.

La rectification orthographique de 1990 tente d'y mettre de l'ordre, mais cela ne simplifie la vie de personne, chacun opte pour l'orthographe qu'il maîtrise, les deux graphies cohabitent.

Complément suite aux exemples de Jiliagre

Tous les exemples présentés ont des caractères typographiques en italique, les accents semblent presque alignés sur l'axe d'inclinaison des lettres ; si on les redresse, les accents sont quasiment verticaux bien qu'il gardent une légère inclinaison d'accent aigu.

Est-ce que les cassetins pour les italiques de è n'étaient pas prévus (pour cette graphie l'accent du e était 'neutre') ou faiblement dotés (il faudrait trouver des è en italique chez le même imprimeur) ?
-- Le site 'orthotypographie' laisse penser que l'unification typographique a mis du temps à se mettre en place.

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  • Thank you for your answer (I apologise for responding in English). I suspect you are correct that the italic calligraphy used for these headings does not distinguish between accents graves and aigus. I believe, however, that this document was engraved rather than set in movable type -- so the explanation would seem to lie in the chosen style of calligraphy rather than a lack of character punches.
    – user8658
    Nov 17, 2015 at 20:37
  • @JonO. No problem for your comment in your fluent language - It would be interesting to search if accent grave exists in italique calligraphy, and this in all size letters or only in usual one
    – Personne
    Nov 18, 2015 at 7:59

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