I snipped the above headline from the BBC News website. Many people have been outraged by this move.
In the town of Harrogate a new street sign indicates that St Mary's Walk should now be known as St Marys Walk. I am rather pleased that an anonymous local resident cared enough to use a permanent black marker to insert an apostrophe between the "y" and the "s" on the new sign. I would have done the same if I lived nearby.
As an English teacher, I regularly explained the use of the apostrophe and its significance in clarifying meaning. I also used a lot of red ink to reinforce that point when marking my pupils' work. What are young people meant to think about apostrophes when they see their own local council ditching them from street signage?
I copied and pasted the following from the BBC report:-
North Yorkshire Council said it "along with many others across the country" had opted to "eliminate" the apostrophe from street signs.
A spokesperson added: "All punctuation will be considered but avoided where possible because street names and addresses, when stored in databases, must meet the standards set out in BS7666.
"This restricts the use of punctuation marks and special characters (e.g. apostrophes, hyphens and ampersands) to avoid potential problems when searching the databases as these characters have specific meanings in computer systems."
What does the BS in BS7666 stand for? I can only imagine that it is Bullshit! I get the idea that on computer spreadsheets etcetera, apostrophes could cause certain problems but so what? That does not seem to be a good reason for eliminating apostrophes from the street signs themselves.
Down in London stands one of this country's greatest cathedrals - St. Paul's Cathedral. It is dedicated to St. Paul - the famous apostle. There's a sense in which the cathedral belongs to him so it's definitely St. Paul's Cathedral and not the lazy version - St. Pauls Cathedral which perhaps wrongly suggests that there are lots of Saint Pauls! Maybe North Yorkshire Council would like to refer The Church of England to "the standards set out in BS7666" which was most certainly created by a bureaucratic moron.
Computers are meant to be our servants and not our masters. Before too long, are North Yorkshire Council going to eliminate apostrophes from all written communications?
BS is right.
ReplyDeleteFight for the apostrophe!!!!
I have already bought some boxing gloves.
DeleteOf course I immediately thought of you when I read this news story.
ReplyDeleteAm I so transparent?
DeleteWell, you are in Yorkshire and you are a former English teacher.
DeleteYou should have been a detective!
DeleteKey term you use is clarity of meaning. Apostrophes add clarity. Apostrophe rules aren't rocket science. People can understand the rules.
ReplyDeleteWithout them the reader has to work so much harder.
DeleteOh, you cant be serious. Its only a small thing. Arent you getting your self excited about nothing? Dont let it get you down.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a little thing when Rosa Parks sat in the white section of the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery on December 1st 1955. A bullet is a little thing too. I am not getting myself excited but I am both annoyed and concerned about the issue.
DeleteP.S. Four missing apostrophes means you have now been removed from my Christmas card list!
DeleteOne more degradation of the English language. Imagine trying to explain apostrophes to a future generation such as perhaps great-great grandchildren of today's students?
ReplyDeleteAnd they'll say, "Well the local council eliminated all apostrophes on street signs back in 2024 so chill out Grandpa!"
DeleteSave the apostrophe! ...in the right place...
ReplyDeleteShould that be ... one of this country's greatest cathedrals ...
Thank you for pointing out that error JayCee. I have now corrected it.
DeleteYet another nail in the coffin of the English Language! Just a small on admittedly, but the rot could have set in..... On the other hand, looking positively - will it rid us of the Grocers apostrophe? That's if there are any Grocer's left of course!
ReplyDeleteGrocers specialise in selling and many are not well-educated so I can easily forgive their crimes against the apostrophe - but a council! They should know better and should be incidental guardians of written English.
DeleteLong live the apostrophe!
ReplyDeleteGod save the semi-colon!
Deletei am thinking of becoming a member of the league for the abolition of capital letters which used to be run by dr cecil reddie, so it would become st marys walk.
ReplyDeleteWell if you do that I will not be friends with you any more! So there!
DeleteMisused apostrophes drive me crazy, and not using them at all would be even worse! Long live (correctly used!) apostrophes!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to be friends with like-minded bloggers!
DeleteIt does make one consider the ways that computers may be changing our language. The idea of St Marys without an apostrophe doesn't seem so outrageous to me, because there's both a town and a river named St Marys on Florida's northern border. But I'm not necessarily suggesting we take grammatical cues from the state of Georgia.
ReplyDeleteI hope that residents of St Marys FL regularly campaign for the reinstatement of their lost apostrophe.
DeleteWell at least I know that in England there is a walk for all of us saint Marys.
ReplyDeleteAnd that walk involves a hop, a skip and the clapping of hands. Try it when you next walk along the lanes of Lloyd.
DeleteThey must be "m..m..m..m...mad."
ReplyDeleteWell North Yorkshire Council is Tory-controlled so you you are probably right Dave!
DeleteThey also left the period off in the St Marys sign. Don't you want to save the period too, Neil?! I think texting has changed a lot of punctuation and spelling.
ReplyDeleteWell spotted Ellen! Of course you are right. "St" is short for "Saint" so it needs a full stop (American: period).
DeleteCall me a heathen and remove me from your Christmas card list. If faced with a choice of computers or apostrophes, I choose the former. Mary and Paul will have to learn to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteI am not against computers - of course I am not. That would be stupid. However, I see no meaningful connection between handling issues on databases and the production of new street signs that have traditionally required apostrophes. After all, the public do not see the computer databases but they see the signs. It isn't a case of one versus the other.
DeleteI'd be very tempted to correct street signs with missing apostropes too. In Swedish we don't use them much but that's because our grammar is different. In English it would probably drive me nuts to read a text where they were all omitted.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader intent on understanding, the absence of apostrophes would make one have to work harder, making numerous allowances for the writer.
DeleteI used to get wound up about this stuff too, but did some reading and realized English is a living language, subject to change as it has done so for centuries. Try reading some Old English sometime!
ReplyDeleteI have studied three or four of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales so I am very aware of how written English has evolved and will continue to evolve but lazy ditching of the apostrophe in North Yorkshire street signs is not something I can just wave through as if it didn't matter.
DeleteWhen I taught, I spent so much time teaching students how to use apostrophes. And they do serve a purpose!!
ReplyDeleteAnd you can't blame Brussels anymore.
ReplyDelete