controversial hyphen (and apostrophe)

[Ronald Butters]

And they don't know a dash from a hyphen, either.

New Johnston high school drops the hyphen


BY COLIN CAMPBELL - Staff Writer
CORINTH-HOLDERS -- The elementary school in this northern Johnston community spells its name with a hyphen, but the new Corinth Holders High School opening this month has dropped the punctuation mark.

Principal Ross Renfrow says the committee in charge of naming the school wanted to make a break with the past while still taking the name and mascot from the old Corinth-Holders High School, which closed in the late 1960s.

"They thought maybe the name should be tweaked a bit so people that don't have a history here will feel as welcome as those folks who've lived here all their lives," Renfrow said, noting that many students who consider themselves Clayton or Archer Lodge residents will attend the school.

The committee, made up of school board members and parents, also wanted to distance the school from the historic divisions between the Corinth and Holders communities, Renfrow said. The schools in those communities were merged in the 1920s, and many folks were unhappy with the move.
"The group felt that sometimes dashes can be divisive," Renfrow said. "They wanted everybody to be on the same page."

Should it have an 's'?

Wingate Lassiter, director of the Johnston County Heritage Center, said all historical references to the community and its schools include the hyphen. "I've never heard it used without a hyphen until now," he said.

In some references though, the community is called Corinth-Holder, Lassiter said.

He figures the "s" debate stems from the early school. Likely named for the Holder family, it was called Holder's School, and the apostrophe later was dropped.

Charles Creech, a 1962 graduate of Corinth-Holders High School, said he favors the hyphenation used at his alma mater but isn't too concerned by the discrepancy. "You used to see it written, even back then, without a hyphen," he said.

By whatever name

Like many other alumni and natives of the area, Creech is excited to have a high school in the community for the first time in 40 years. "I am just pleased as punch," he said. "I plan to go to some things over there. We've already volunteered in the school."

The new high school isn't the only institution in the community that doesn't hyphenate. The Corinth Holders Fire Department doesn't have the hyphen in its logo.

But in its listing, the Johnston County Department of Emergency Services puts a hyphen in the fire department's name. That confusion is bound to extend to the new school - even the school's website contains a couple of mentions of "Corinth-Holders High School."

"That hyphen's going to show up most of the time," predicts Lassiter, who routinely deals with naming confusion, especially in the county's smaller communities. Even county officials, he said, have yet to figure out whether to put an apostrophe in Blackmons Crossroads.


Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/13/626787/new-johnston-high-school-drops.html#ixzz0wUxzn0R7
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/13/626787/new-johnston-high-school-drops.html
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