's

It used to be so simple. The Rule said the genitive singular of words-ending-in-s is indicated by adding an apostrophe-s, and plurals add a simple apostrophe. This worked even with tricky ones. The set model was "St James's Street" (where I once went to a smart upmarket shop to buy a hat). The singular noun "James" was genitived with an apostrophe-s, so "James's" was the norm. We had to be a bit careful with "men's outfitters", but there was really no problem. Everybody knew the correct spelling!

Alas! this is no longer so. Judging by the majority of the texts I read, with words-ending-in-s we are moving towards a genetivisation (sic!) by means of a simple apostrophe-without-an-s both in the singular and the plural.  Lament as I may the loss of old-fashioned-distinctions, I have to accept that even academics with a Classical background tend to fall into line with examples such as "Julius' children".

I rejoice when I find samples of inconsistency among the serried ranks of the learn-ed. A recent publication from an Ancient Historian (sorry, I couldn't resist that one) has "Apuleius's Latin novel" on page 6 and "Jesus' disciples" on page 20.

sic transit glorious monday. (Oh, really! Must you?)

francis cameron, oxford, 27 june 2010

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