At 20:07 +0100 2002-08-20, Marion Gunn wrote: >In re the 'ornamental' use of the apostrophe to anglicize Irish surnames, I >believe that practice to be unique to English (viz., inserting an >apostrophe where nothing is omitted, and it does not function as a >punctuation mark).
It's not ornamental in origin. It serves to link, as a hyphen does, while graphically recalling the acute accent. I suspect it's in origin just an acute gone wayward, and then reanalyzed as a punctuation mark. >Am I wrong, or is what I call the English practice actually unique to >English, Analogous, if not similar, uses of the apostrophe are found in Dutch, if memory serves, in place and personal names. -- Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com
