The incorrect use of the apostrophe in English is becoming ever more
prevalent. Greengrocers (fruit and veg. mongers) used to be the worst
culprits (eg: "apple's" instead of "apples"), so this abomination became
known as the grocer's apostrophe.
Now, like a virus, it has spread everywhere. The worst example, from Ebay
(I refuse to write "eBay"), is "lense's"!
Actually, I made that up. But it's only a question of time.
John
On Sun, 29 May 2005 22:34:47 +0100, Jostein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
John,
your description of changes in the English language sounds hideously
familiar. It echoes the developent we see in Norwegian as well. One
certainly doesn't have to be an old fart to disapprove.
Interestingly, one of the threats to our language is in fact the
influence of English. Hard to come up with a good example, but one
little silly thing is the use of apostrophs, like in "Foster's". In our
language we don't use apostrophs that way ever, exept after words ending
with "s", like "Forbes' ".
<sidewinder>And of course we don't capitalise the names of languages.
Especially not Canadian.</sidewinder>
Cheers,
Jostein
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Forbes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<old fart mode on> I have always considered it thus:
[...]
What saddens me, and many other old farts too, I expect, is that many
of these linguistic changes are not, as supporters claim, a sign of
richness or diversity, but of simple ignorance, stemming partly from
poor education and partly from incorrect usage by non-native
speakers. "Lense" is a case in point. "Specie" for "species" is
another, and "criteria" for "criterion" is a third. The worst is
"media" for "medium", as in "a media". The proponents of richness and
diversity claim this is just organic change; I say it is degeneration.
</old fart mode off>
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