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Much ado about apostrophes
At the end of the day, the punctuation puritans were divided and it looked like a war of words; AP and co versus New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal & Co
Kamala Harris could scarcely have foreseen that her foray into the fray for the US top seat would spell two battles- presidency and punctuation.
Grammar got its day out when Kamala named a running mate with a curious sounds-like-an-S surname, Tim Walz.
Punctuation made more pressing issues pause with this question about what constitutes correct English- Harris’ or Harris’s.
“The Argument of Apostrophes”, this social media debate about the usage of apostrophe with possessive proper nouns, tossed Twitterverse into a tizzy post Walz’s nomination.
Punctuation puritans pronto began baring their teeth. Benjamin Dreyer, a former copy chief at Random House, had no peace even when he was visiting his dentist. For, he was inundated with queries to resolve the apostrophe ambivalence when it comes to ‘Harris’.
Social media started seeing as many tweets as there are newspaper styles. Newspaper stylebooks popped up as many variants as there are tirades in Trump’s vocabulary.
Associated Press stuck to its style-sheet, “use only an apostrophe for singular proper names ending in S: Dickens’ novels, Hercules’ labours, Jesus’ life.” The Guardian stylebook, on the other hand, spelt greater flexibility on the matter, “The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones’s, James’s), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps…”
As tweets flew faster than Parliament’s slugfests, another take was tossed up by this tweet, “The rule is simple: If you say the s, spell the s.”
At the end of the day, the punctuation puritans were divided and it looked like a war of words. AP and co versus New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal & Co.
Kissa Kamala Harris ka
This much ado about apostrophes, but naturally reminds of our days at the news desk.
Grammar was gunned down our systems by growling to garrulous chief subs and associate editors of all shapes, surmises and swagger– Guri, Virdi, Ramasamy & Co. The last word on the stylebook, of course, rested with custodians of the Queen’s English, editors-in-chief Prem Bhatia, VN Narayanan & Co.
The real challenge in those heyday stints with the stylebook was more about not churning out a remix, of British English and American style-sheets.
Some memorable moments of Grammar causing a comma-tion were when a chief sub deflated “balloon” with a single ‘o’ in the headline; a senior sub wrongly wrote “effects” in place of “Flood affects thousands”; a cub sub misspelt “diarrhoea” or “bougainvillea” and other such howlers.
Ah, but never did an apostrophe, perhaps, spark off a national or global debate. Blame it on the paucity of Indian surnames ending with an S.
There are, of course, Indian first names, a dime a dozen, ending with an S. These could now vie for an apostrophe argument akin to Harris’. Tejas, Ojas, Prabhas, Owas, Anas, Rajas and so on.
Second to nun
Grammatically speaking, none can beat that tribe our grammar grew up on- the convent nun. A petty crime like a misplaced apostrophe or comma could be a red rag to an entire nunnery- punctuation puritans. It turned them into protagonists of a tale with a twist, sometimes into twisted protagonists of that plot- Cane and Able.
From Sister Patricia, aka “Patty”, to Roy ma’am, Pari ma’am & Co, we were schooled well in the nuances of grammar.
As an esteemed custodian of convent lingo, Patty’s passion for minding our Queen’s English was punctuated sometimes by that other passion for things Hindi- Bollywood.
Before the advent of Harris, the only apostrophe ambivalence assailing us thus might have had to do with our above-mentioned tribes- Grammar Nazis.
Grammar Nazis’ or Grammar Nazis’s?
Which makes one wonder what would’ve been Patty’s take on the current Great Global Argument of Apostrophes.
The curious case of “Harris is nun of my business.”
chetnakeer@yahoo.com
