About a week ago, Cambridge City Council announced its decision to ban the use of apostrophes in all new street names. The argument put forward for this by council officers was that they were following national guidance which warned that apostrophes could lead to mistakes, especially for emergency services. The decision is said to bring the council into line with the National Land and Property Gazetteer, where new street names are registered.
Not surprisingly, given the academic distinction of Cambridge, this decision has provoked an uproar. Kathy Salaman, director of the Good Grammar Company based near Cambridge, called it a dreadful idea, commenting “I know some people think apostrophes are superfluous but we really need them and I think it’s the first step on a slippery slope.”
As it happens, another local authority made a similar decision about a year ago. The Mid-Devon Council announced its decision, for similar reasons — to “avoid confusion”. That decision provoked an outcry, and the Mid-Devon Council backed down and reversed it.
One of the leaders of the campaign to save the punctuation mark is John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. He is a retired journalist, who founded the society after years of correcting mistakes in copy submitted by reporters. He said he had been rather surprised by how well the society had been received. People in more than fifty countries had sent emails supporting it.
My irritation at the idea of abolishing apostrophes from road signs is as great as his. When I considered my immediate reaction to the Cambridge Council’s decision, I asked myself whether I was perhaps being simply pedantic and concluded I was not.
You do not have to look far to find good reasons for keeping the apostrophe. In Cambridge, for example, one of the colleges is Queens’ — the apostrophe indicating that it was founded by the wife of King Henry VI and then re-founded by King Edward IV’s consort: two queens. Oxford has a similarly named college — The Queen’s College: only one queen.
There are many examples of misuse — or failure to use — apostrophes, which create doubts about the meaning intended. A sign indicating “your on camera” is an example. It is intended to indicate that the reader (probably in a shopping centre) is under camera surveillance. The reaction might well be “your on camera what?”
Sometimes, of course, the apostrophe error is merely irritating or amusing. For example “A range of menu’s to suit all budgets” would lead me to complain grammatically, but not to misunderstand the intention.
Canterbury Christ Church University has clearly been concerned about ignorance of the proper use of apostrophes in students’ writing, which it says is one of the most annoying things for tutors when marking essays. The university sets out guidance, pointing out the various ways in which apostrophes are used. The guidance includes: “When letters have been left out of a word. For example: The library’s still open (meaning the library is still open); It won’t be necessary (meaning it will not be necessary).”
It also includes “To show possession (belonging to). For example: Einstein’s theory of relativity (meaning the theory of relativity of Einstein)”
I have no doubt that the Cambridge City Council’s decision will continue to be widely opposed. The Cambridge News, the local newspaper which reported the decision, and many criticisms of it, also published an editorial declaring that the critics of the decision were right. “It is a bad move,” the editorial declared, adding “our councillors should have the courage to defy bodies like the National Land and Property Gazetteer and do the right thing.”
The editorial is a good indication that the controversy is not over yet, it is probably only just beginning. There will, I am sure, be plenty of people who dislike the Cambridge Council’s proposal, and who will make their dislike strongly known. There is, in fact, never in Cambridge a dearth of people ready to make their views loudly and strongly known. I look forward eagerly to the battle continuing. Indeed, to bring an apostrophe into play, I think it’s partly my battle.
Email: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
