The Death of the Apostrophe?

[Romulious]

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=ApostropheCatastrophe&GT1=27004



WHY?! Why are we hurting those poor creatures?

[Yootopia]

There are many reason's to do so.

[Romulious]

There are many reason's to do so.

SUCH AS??

[Yootopia]

There are many reason's to do so.

SUCH AS??

Err they confuse foreigners and native speakers alike, esp. in cases such as its vs. it's, and are a bit of a waste of time when it comes to possession.

[Mor Rioghan]

I love apostrophes. They make some words prettier.

Really, I'm just against the death of the apostrophe because I'm an English major. I couldn't really give you a reason why it would be a bad idea. Maybe because it would say that intellectual apathy is okay and would be a gateway drug to the death of, say, vowels? Something to consider, anyway.

[Yootopia]

Maybe because it would say that intellectual apathy is okay and would be a gateway drug to the death of, say, vowels? Something to consider, anyway.

Oh ffs.

Aye, we're taking out the apostrophe, so it's basically the same as taking out some key parts of our language. And not just a relatively new addition that serves little purpose. Oh no.

[Rejistania]

There are many reason's to do so.

Not really. How bad would that look without them?

Xe'asavleji demu'tan jihil lata. Mi'la'oki'tye'ta xen'han. Xe'la'aru'ta
diharis ji relikijo. Xe'onje'tes, min'tadva ki'het, he. Xe'la'erid menhes.
Xe'ma'ta 'erid jilih ulki jilih.

[Saige Dragon]

isaywefinishoffpuntuationalltogetherincludingcapitalizingcertainlettersandspacesinsentancesitwouldreducepaperconsumption

[Heaven Hieghts]

Im too lazy to add apostrophes...

[Blargaflarg]

The presence or absence of an apostrophe changes the meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence.

Just like taking out all the umlauts, carets, whatever that mark below the "c" in French is called, and various modifying marks and other diacriticals in other languages.

Getting rid of the apostrophe is a bad idea, unless we then insist that people use "it is" instead of "it's" and use "you are" instead of "you're" (or, recently and incorrectly, "your"), etc.

Then again, getting all the Germans to use oe instead of ö, ss instead of ß, the Swedish to use whatever instead of ø (a møøse once bit my sister), the Spanish to use "ni" or "ny" instead of øñ, and all the other marks out there, would be just as dumb. One could make the argument that "it's hard for foreigners", especially ones with English keyboards, because we don't have those keys. And it would be just as wrong as saying we should get rid of the apostrophe.

It's confusing to kids, too. Guess what? With time (and the occasional good teacher), they get through it and learn. Or they continue to screw it up. Foreigners are no special case.

[Cameroi]

i'm for eliminating capitalization. to me its just a totally unnecessary endulgement in gratuitous ego.

as for the ape's trophy, i think words would look better if we replaced them with dashes. which i don't know why we don-t just call them dashes, instead of high finns (which sounds like the saumi on recreational substances of possibly flying fish)

[Heaven Hieghts]

The presence or absence of an apostrophe changes the meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence.

Just like taking out all the umlauts, carets, whatever that mark below the "c" in French is called, and various modifying marks and other diacriticals in other languages.

Getting rid of the apostrophe is a bad idea, unless we then insist that people use "it is" instead of "it's" and use "you are" instead of "you're" (or, recently and incorrectly, "your"), etc.

Then again, getting all the Germans to use oe instead of ö, ss instead of ß, the Swedish to use whatever instead of ø (a møøse once bit my sister), the Spanish to use "ni" or "ny" instead of øñ, and all the other marks out there, would be just as dumb. One could make the argument that "it's hard for foreigners", especially ones with English keyboards, because we don't have those keys. And it would be just as wrong as saying we should get rid of the apostrophe.

It's confusing to kids, too. Guess what? With time (and the occasional good teacher), they get through it and learn. Or they continue to screw it up. Foreigners are no special case.

It doesnt with the word Qur'an... its the same either way...

[Errinundera]

In Australia, the place name convention is to remove the apostrophe but, mostly, the "s" is removed also. So, something like Billy Goats' Track would become Billy Goat Track.

This has caused some angst over historical sites. One that comes to mind is Cooper's Creek, famous for the dig tree and the death of the explorers, Burke and Wills. It has been officially renamed Cooper Creek but no-one likes it.

[Bokkiwokki]

' ' -, ' ?





I mean:
People wouldn't like it if we'd throw out all non-punctuation, so why would it be better if we'd do the inverse?

[Hryvatia]

Fuck no, we've got to nip this netspeak right in the bud or forever suffer a Western hemisphere of illiterate retards.

Excuse my Cohenian.

[Saint Jade IV]

I hate this crap. The apostrophe is a part of English. Without it, you would make the language harder, not easier. There is a difference between won't and wont, for instance. How will we tell the difference?

[Allanea]

"There", "their", and "they're" also confuse people.

It "confuses" people? Well, maybe if they took their time to learn the language, they wouldn't be so confused.

[Truly Blessed]

We could use dashes.

Apostrophe is a problem because the use is weird.

John's Book
John's coat

The dog hurt (((its}}} paw

Why does this not have an Apostrophe?

It is is a waste of punctuation. Do not use contractions. Really people we are saving what one letter in fact it is not even saving you one letter because you have to put the Apostrophe? It the usage of the the punctuation that is the problem.

period -> ends a sentence
comma -> breaks up long sentences
semi-colon -> who cares no one uses them. Sorry, it breaks up dissimilar thoughts sort
Full colon -> something to do with lists, I think or to begin a letter, why who the f knows
Question mark -> This one is okay and rarely abused
Exclamation point -> Usually when some one is yelling. Same effect can be done. USING FULL CAPITALS OR BOLDING THE LETTERS IN QUESTION SO THAT EVEN THAT GUY IN THE BACK CORNER CAN READ IT.

[Yootopia]

There is a difference between won't and wont, for instance. How will we tell the difference?

BY YOUR POWERS COMBINED, I AM CAPTAIN CONTEXT!

[Khadgar]

I hate this crap. The apostrophe is a part of English. Without it, you would make the language harder, not easier. There is a difference between won't and wont, for instance. How will we tell the difference?

Most people who can't use an apostrophe correctly are unlikely to realize that wont is a word in it's own right.

[Yootopia]

"There", "their", and "they're" also confuse people.

It "confuses" people? Well, maybe if they took their time to learn the language, they wouldn't be so confused.

Yeah, for most people, learning the correct use of the apostrophe is pretty low on their list of priorities. See the classic Grocer's (or Grocers'?) Apostrophe, with "fresh pea's, 59p per lb" etc. - fine, as someone who knows how the apostrophe works (most of the time), that's an obvious mistake, but it's not like it doesn't get the point across. There are fresh peas. They will cost you 59 pence for 454 grams.

[UNIverseVERSE]

Exclamation point -> Usually when some one is yelling. Same effect can be done. USING FULL CAPITALS OR BOLDING THE LETTERS IN QUESTION SO THAT EVEN THAT GUY IN THE BACK CORNER CAN READ IT.

This is a very bad idea, from a typographical point of view, for much the same reason that removing capital letters is a bad idea. The more variable lower-case letters are easier to read quickly, while capitals help alert the eye to new sentences or important words.* Of course, an exclamation denotes far more than simple shouting - surprise, shock, and anger can all be easily signalled with it.

Over the years, the English language has developed an excellent set of typographical conventions, most of which act to vastly improve legibility and ease of reading the printed word**. Discarding them heedlessly is a bad idea.

*This is also the advantage of serifed text, when viewed at sufficiently high resolution - hence why serifs aren't used (much) for body text on computer screens.

**Handwriting is a slightly different case - few people can handwrite consistently enough to make alternate hands, such as italics or bold, a sensible idea. However, hand-written text gains legibility from the natural flow a human writer has, particularly if they're confident and competent, while printed text has lost this.

[Levity]

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=ApostropheCatastrophe&GT1=27004



WHY?! Why are we hurting those poor creatures?

Discouraging? Absolutely, however I take a little solace in the fact that the sign in that article used the correct "their" at least.

But in thinking about "there" "they're" and their"... what happens if we remove the apostrophe in "they're" -- it becomes "theyre", and if you're going to do that, you might as well go all the way with it, lose that "y", and just use "there".

[Yootopia]

But in thinking about "there" "they're" and their"... what happens if we remove the apostrophe in "they're" -- it becomes "theyre", and if you're going to do that, you might as well go all the way with it, lose that "y", and just use "there".

Wut... they're two different words, with two different purposes, and yet which are homophones. Need some kind of spelling difference there tbqh.

[Levity]

But in thinking about "there" "they're" and their"... what happens if we remove the apostrophe in "they're" -- it becomes "theyre", and if you're going to do that, you might as well go all the way with it, lose that "y", and just use "there".

Wut... they're two different words, with two different purposes, and yet which are homophones. Need some kind of spelling difference there tbqh.

Do we, though? Aurally, we only discern meaning of a homophone through context; why not in writing?

Mind you, I'm not actually advocating for this change but rather musing aloud what the ramifications of the death of the apostrophe might be for other aspects of English. Language changes over time, and I'm okay with that, but were it my decision to make, the apostrophe would be restored to her former glory in the heavens of every word where she rightfully belongs. You'll have to pry the apostrophe from my cold, dead keyboard.