Devon council bans apostrophe to "avoid confusion"
The apostrophe is being banned from street names in parts of Devon to "avoid potential confusion".
Mid Devon District Council said its new streets had not contained apostrophes for many years, but the policy was now being made official.
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The apostrophe could soon vanish from street signs, like this one in Newton Abbot, named after Sir Samuel White Baker
It said apostrophes could only be found in three street names in the district.
It added that Beck's Square and Blundell's Avenue, both in Tiverton, and St George's Well in Cullompton, were "all named many, many years ago".
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Andrew Lacey, from the council, said there was "no national guidance that stops apostrophes being used".
Steve Jenner from the Plain English Campaign said punctuation, including the apostrophe, was one of the basic rules of language and he described the council's decision as "nonsensical".
A statement from the council said: "Our proposed policy on street naming and numbering covers a whole host of practical issues, many of which are aimed at reducing potential confusion over street names."
5 Comments
by Jungle_Jim
Friday, March 15 2013, 9:57PM
“To get over the confusion that is common here, perhaps we should get rid of the apostrophe all together. Perhaps we could replace "their", "there" and "they're" with a single word while we're at it and make "myself" the standard first person singular, no matter what the context.”
by ThomasG
Friday, March 15 2013, 8:18PM
“Or even "meant to write"! Fingers misbehaving today.”
by ThomasG
Friday, March 15 2013, 8:17PM
“Oops! Hoisted by own petard! "Prefix" is of course what I mean to write ... !”
by ThomasG
Friday, March 15 2013, 8:14PM
“I suppose this is what we should expect from a council that can not even get its own name right - constructions such as those involving the suffix "mid" should either involve the adoption of a whole new word, as in "midsummer", or should employ a hyphen, as in "mid-flight". As for the writing of this street sign, in other countries they would have to contend with, typically, using the appropriate genitive or adjectival form of the word "Baker". We cannot even manage a simple apostrophe! No wonder they think we are ignorant.”
by philpict
Friday, March 15 2013, 5:21PM
“Thank God someone has finally done something about the terrible confusion caused by the apostrophe in place names. This will literally save me seconds of time not having to consider whether to use one. Time I will be able to spend reading the inane comments on newspaper articles, for example. The world will be a better place, thanks Mid Devon District Council, you're a fine example of money well spent!”