Vingt ans après, le destin des Rectifications de l’orthographe de 1990 dans les dictionnaires L’exemple du Dictionnaire Hachette, du Petit Larousse illustré et du Petit Robert

Reflecting as they do both usage and the norm, dictionaries offer an attractive vantage point to examine the reception of the 1990 French spelling reform. The proposals for reform are still tentative, twenty years after being published in the Journal officiel de la République française of 6th December 1990. Dictionaries thus have two tasks: to monitor and account for actual usage, and to follow the official line within reasonable limits. The aim of the article is to analyse how the lexicographers express themselves in the front and back matter and what is actually practiced in the indications given. In other words, how can the users of the 2011 editions of Dictionnaire Hachette, Le Petit L arousse illustré and Le Petit Robert find their way around French spelling?