Corpora: Apostrophes

[marc fryd]

Interesting topic this. Has anyone noticed the
apostrophe's vanishing act in such sign postings as
"Gents" or "Ladies" (for Lavatories) in department
stores. My memory could be failing me, but I am pretty
confident that this is a fairly recent evolution. On
the other hand, I was taken aback a few years ago at
the sight of a shop front which had been uncovered for
rehabilitation of the whole building and which bore a
definitely early twentieth century hand painting
saying: "Hairdressers", without the flaming apostrophe
either before or after the letter "s". I would
therefore agree with the various contributors to this
thread that this elusive diacritic does indeed deserve
more attention. My guess is that a historical survey
of "-es" vs "-'s" or "-ed" vs "-'d" in non literary
documents (letters, notary acts, etc.) would probably
help shed some light on the subject.
Yours,
Marc Fryd
Université de Poitiers
Marc.Fryd at mshs.univ-poitiers.fr

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