"Stephen J. Turnbull" <[email protected]> writes: >>> [Possessives: Darcs' vs. Darcs's] >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Singular_nouns_ending_with_an_.22s.22_or_.22z.22_sound > > I think it's pretty clear from that article that the rule that was > taught to me in New York in the 1960s and was taught to my daughter in > California in 2008 *is* the widely agreed standard, and the apparent > balance in presentation of the alternative is basically an artifact of > Wikipedia's editorial enforcment of the NPOV.
I don't know how much bearing this has on the issue, but I note that New York, California and Wikipedia all use American English (which is only one of many English dialects[0]). The style guide cited in the article seem to be largely American[1], too. > In any case, we're doing marketing. To most educated native speakers > I know (admittedly, that sample is overwhelmingly populated with > professional academics, mostly over the age of 40), the partially > simplified rule[1] looks lazy and unprofessional. I'm an educated native English speaker raised with Australian English. FWIW, I received the highest possible mark for English during matriculation, taking the International Baccalaureate. When writing, I would put "darcs'", not "darcs's". To me, the latter looks like a neologism introduced by those trying to make English spelling more phonetic. From a typography standpoint, I prefer the former. If I was marking a paper I would accept either. As the Darcs documentation manager, I decree that either are acceptable. If the possessive form can be avoided *without* sacrificing readability, then I suggest documentors do so -- but that's not a rule. [0] I use the word "dialect" loosely. No flames, please! [1] Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler's_Modern_English_Usage Unfortunately it seems I misremember; the first edition ISN'T in the public domain, so I can't easily check what Fowler has to say. _______________________________________________ darcs-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/darcs-users
