Apostrophe catastrophe for city's street signs
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Independent Minds
Birmingham City Council has ruled that apostrophes should not feature on its road and street signs. The decision, which the authority hopes will draw a line under decades of dispute, follows a review to establish whether the possessive punctuation mark should be restored to place names such as Kings Norton and Druids Heath.
Martin Mullaney, who leads the city's transportation scrutiny committee, conceded that the new city-wide policy would upset a lot of residents.
But he stressed that the decision not to reintroduce apostrophes, which began to disappear from Birmingham's road signs in the 1950s, had been taken in light of several factors, including the need for consistency and the cost of changing existing signage.
"We are constantly getting residents asking for apostrophes to be put back in and as a council we have got to make a decision one way or another," Mr Mullaney said.
"Both the Plain English Society and the Plain Language Commission have said that there is no rule in Britain with regards to possessive apostrophes in place names."
Mr Mullaney's view was not shared by John Richards, the founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society: "It seems retrograde, dumbing down really. It is setting a very bad example."
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Comments
English should be made up to a Grade I Listed Language in order to protect its vesitges!
This decision is a fitting tribute to a nation of illiterate knuckledraggers. Can't write their own language without elementary errors! Onwards boldly down the plughole with New Labour. No other country IN THE WORLD would tolerate spelling place-signs wrongly.
These two stories highlight what's wrong with Britain. Idiotic illiteracy cannot be corrected because it costs too much money - but there's a bottomless pit of money for knuckledragging sport-jock Olympic events.
The same with King's Norton (my apostrophe there). I'm not sure what a Norton is but how many kings possessed it in the past?
People who think that the humble apostrophe is unimportant have no idea how confusing the English language would be without it. For example: Fiddlers Well become a statement on his health rather than a statement regarding his ownership of a hole in the ground filled with water. The two things could not be more different and only that tiny little apostrophe tells you which it is. Saves so much time when you're standing there wondering if you should buy a bunch of grapes or fetch a bucket.
I deal with Masters Degree students, some of whom regularly hand me work which is full of grammatical errors. And given that it is a Creative Writing degree it is more than a little disheartening.
We should also ask if the orginal name might have been Druid Has Heath....
Punctuation is a courtesy to the reader. But since you can't be bothered to spell-check your post and include profanity in the title of your post it is evident that you do not value good manners or respect for others.
I think two issues are being mixed up here. Of course the apostrophe is vital in everyday written English, but with place names the issue is not clear cut. Plenty of places are conventionally spelt without one: Earls Court, Palmers Green, Marks Tey. Others, like St John's Wood, do have one. Two-part names don't have to make grammatical sense: Chipping Norton doesn't have to be interpreted as the Norton that chips, and nor does Kings Norton need to be seen as the Norton of a King. It's just two words. I'd suggest that we can live with it, and save our ire for better causes.
Yes a subtely different meaning, but it saved many the confusion of whether to put the apostraphe in or not - or even where the apostrophe went [it could be a Mr Symond!].
Now it's just plain, and nice and easy that way. As Mr or Miss Vida960 said: save our ire for better causes!
Have people's lives become that mundane and boring they are resorting to this??
As a student I despair, i really do. I think i'm going to now go on an irresponsible binge drinking session and wild party to celebrate the end of exams, to help balance out the immense dullness of Mr. Richards.
Poor man. He's one step away from taking up golf.
So learn to use apostrophes correctly, or you needn't bother including a CV!
2. As indicated above, this was written at an unsociable hour when I read the article, I wasn't in the mood to proof read...
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st_j