guanin: (David blue eyes)
guanin ([personal profile] guanin) wrote2009-02-17 08:39 pm
Entry tags:

In less angsty news... okay, maybe not.

The apostrophe is apparently too "old fashioned" for the government types in Birmingham.

"It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the
1950s."

That's right. They've removed the apostrophes from all street signs because "they confuse people". What people?! Three year olds? Supposedly,

"Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed," he [Councilor Martin Mullaney] said. "More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don't want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it."

Because you need an A-level to know what something as obscure and archaic as an apostrophe is. Not that you learned this in grade school or anything. I'm so tired of advertisers/the government/random people trying to get away with their laziness with punctuation by calling it old fashioned and unnecessary, because what difference does it make if you put an accent on a word. Everyone knows what it is, right? Well, no. Sorry. But "esta" and "está" are not the same thing, just like "it's" isn't "its" and "Kings" isn't "King's". Get a punctuation manual and fucking learn the difference.

The article is here.

[identity profile] tju-tju-tju-tju.livejournal.com 2009-02-17 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
What the flying fuck -- ?

[identity profile] guanin.livejournal.com 2009-02-17 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I know!! It's so ridiculous. I don't know how this is even conceivable.

[identity profile] drakochi.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Well that is funny. I thought everyone knew the difference. Especially ENGLISH people. I mean... they are not even American... (And americans get more bashing for those things than the U.K people)

[identity profile] guanin.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Me, too. It's kinda obvious. And there are a lot of people protesting this move by what the article said, as there should be. Yeah, British people are more known for seeking to maintain the purity of the Queen's English, so this sounds especially odd.