Apostrophes revisited
Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that there is a debate on the Birmingham apostrophe ban going on between Coun Martin Mullaney and that unlikely champion of the Queen's English - me.
For those who missed it scroll down to You Couldn't Make it Up or even click here to go to the comments page and join the debate.
Meanwhile Coun Mullaney makes the valid point that one of the problems facing the city council is which of the road signs and districts in Birmingham which look as if they should have an apostrophe actually need one. It is easy with Clay Pits Lane or Green Lane or whatever but others are not so easy. You cannot just stick an apostrophe in every word ending in S as Tesco for some bizarre reason do with CDs and DVDs, or CD's and DVD's in the supermarket's version of English.
One example he uses is Earl's Court in London, which has an apostrophe, and Barons Court, next door, which, correctly, does not.
Coun Mullaney has come up with a few names as examples in Birmingham so can anyone out there tell us the origin of the following and whether an apostrophe is needed?
Reddings Road (Moseley)
Lozells Road (Handsworth)
Queens Road (Aston)
Waterworks Road (Ladywood)
Deakins Road (Yardley)
The Radleys (Yardley)
Garretts Green Lane (Yardley)
Pritchatts Road (Edgbaston)
Willows Road (Balsall Heath)
Waldrons Moor (Stirchley)
Personally I think Waterworks Road is fine unless the road actually belongs to the waterworks, while according to the interesting website http://billdargue.jimdo.com/ The Radleys probably relates to red fields in mediaeval times from the red sand in the area, so is a plural and needs no apostrophe, as for the rest . . . help the council out.
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Roger Clarke - BirminghamâÂÂs very own Grumpy Old Man on what gets right up his nose.
Nice to see you're enjoying your retirement.
In yesterday's Birmingham Mail letters page there were a series of letters complaining about the Council's decision to not to re-introduce the apostrophe in place names.
At the end of these letters was a note from the Editor which said:
[b]The Birmingham Mail will continue to use the apostrophe wherever applicable.[/b]
I quick glance through the Birmngham Mail shows that page after page that the paper has already dropped the apostrophe from place names. A bit hypocritic of the Birmingham Mail, me thinks.
Just received this weeks edition of Birmingham Mail Extra and guess what? Page after page of Birmingham place names and streets with the apostrophe removed.
If the Birmingham Mail are going to have a go at the Council for dropping the apostrophe in place names, shouldn't the Mail at least practise what they preach?
I have enough difficulty maintaining a passing resemblance to English on my blog, where incidentally, I will endeavour to keep apostrophes in place names but I am sure your comments will have been noted by the editor.
As another Grumpy Old Man (and Brummie), I'd like to know:
Why does everyone in the media, TV News, etc., keep insisting that we've started a new decade? You don't have to be Stephen Hawking to work out that we've just completed the ninth year of the current decade (2009, right?), and the decade continues until the _end_ of its tenth year. Am I right, or am I right?
Duh!
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