A Good Laugh or a Crying Shame?

[Flosshilde]

Pabs, thanks for your post #18 - most interesting (no, really ), but it still suggests that Tue's could be regarded as correct.

[Flosshilde]

My local park is called 'Queens Park' - reputedly named for Mary (whose last stand was in the locality) but probably named for Victoria. Given the doubt the plural rather than the posessive is probably justified.

(However, it is (or was) also one of the best known cruising grounds in Glasgow, so the queens referred to could be of a different sort. In which case the name should be Queens' - plural and posessive)

[amateur51]

My local park is called 'Queens Park' - reputedly named for Mary (whose last stand was in the locality) but probably named for Victoria. Given the doubt the plural rather than the posessive is probably justified.

(However, it is (or was) also one of the best known cruising grounds in Glasgow, so the queens referred to could be of a different sort. In which case the name should be Queens' - plural and posessive)

I am frequently thwarted by train and travel websites that insist that King's Cross station should be Kings Cross

[vinteuil]

I am frequently thwarted by train and travel websites that insist that King's Cross station should be Kings Cross

... o, I do hope your thwarts aren't too frequent!

King's Cross, of course. But why, when it's Earl's Court - is it Barons Court (sans apostrophe) next along?

My pastoral imaginings of earlier life here were destroyed when I realised it was not Shepherds' Bush but rather Shepherd's Bush. And apparently a Mr Shepherd rather than a representative sheep-herd...

[Don Petter]

Isnt it nice to have a thread were you can just slam in any old text without thinkin and the'll just assume your bein clever an joinin in the fun?

[Pabmusic]

...it still suggests that Tue's could be regarded as correct.

Yes, I agree because I think 'Tue' is our modern rendition of 'Tiw"; we can then regard the apostrophe as indicating just the possessive sense, instead of actually taking the place of a missing 'e'. Tue'sday. I think we could do something similar with Woden's day (Wedn'sday) and Thor's day (Thur'sday), though the other days bring some problems. The Anglo-Saxon Frīġedæġ is 'day of Frige" and doesn't have the possessive '-es' because it already ends in 'e'. But we would have to write "Fri'day" I suppose to indicate the possessive, perhaps we'd even need to add an 's' - Fri'sday. The Old English for Saturday was Sæternesdæg (Saturn's day) so I suppose we'd need something similar - Saturn'sday. The other days have the irregular '-an' ending for a possessive. Sunday was Sunnandæg, which is Sun's day; and Monday was from Mōnandæg (Moon's day).

My anorak still has life in it!

[Flosshilde]

Ooh absolutely - would not it be fun to use the above instead of the conventional spellings?

[Flosshilde]

And to respond to the original question, I think it's a crying shame.

My mobile phone has relegated the apostrophe to 5th position on the second screen of punctuation, symbols etc. This makes it less important than the bent arrow you find on the 'return' key on a computer or the wavy hyphen - so essential when writing a message!

[Panjandrum]

As upsetting (at least to me) as the misuse of the apostrophe, is the increasingly frequent misuse of the word, "where" as in "we where going". I can just about understand (though not condone) the interpolation of "of", as in "could of; should of; would of", due to the similarity of sound, but how the hell can anyone confuse "were" with "where"?

[teamsaint]

Yes, I agree because I think 'Tue' is our modern rendition of 'Tiw"; we can then regard the apostrophe as indicating just the possessive sense, instead of actually taking the place of a missing 'e'. Tue'sday. I think we could do something similar with Woden's day (Wedn'sday) and Thor's day (Thur'sday), though the other days bring some problems. The Anglo-Saxon Frīġedæġ is 'day of Frige" and doesn't have the possessive '-es' because it already ends in 'e'. But we would have to write "Fri'day" I suppose to indicate the possessive, perhaps we'd even need to add an 's' - Fri'sday. The Old English for Saturday was Sæternesdæg (Saturn's day) so I suppose we'd need something similar - Saturn'sday. The other days have the irregular '-an' ending for a possessive. Sunday was Sunnandæg, which is Sun's day; and Monday was from Mōnandæg (Moon's day).

My anorak still has life in it!

I shall be popping down to Gosport later this week, to go through all this at the chippy.
We will be talking, of course, in ancient scumpy.

[Serial_Apologist]

A tv/music shop in Greenock many years ago had a van emblazoned with "television's, radio's, record player's".......................

................valves?

[mangerton]

......... but how the hell can anyone confuse "were" with "where"?

I think poor pronunciation has a lot to do with poor spelling.

[mangerton]

................valves?

This was very near the end of the valve era, so valve's were not advertised.

Co-incidentally, my valve amplifier developed a fault yesterday evening, so is currently out of action.

[Panjandrum]

I think poor pronunciation has a lot to do with poor spelling.

Exactly: but who the dickens says "we where going"? Perhaps some subconscious link is made between the verb "to go" and the place "where" one is going.

[Don Petter]

Exactly: but who the dickens says "we where going"? Perhaps some subconscious link is made between the verb "to go" and the place "where" one is going.

Where-wolves?