0

There are certain informal expressions in English language like 'nuff said or 'Murican that feature apostrophes in a puzzling (to me) way. I have two (I think sufficiently related) questions about the usage of apostrophe in such cases.

Firstly, what purpose is it supposed to serve? When we write John's house, apostrophe signifies that house belongs to John; but in such phrases what does apostrophe signify?

Secondly, is the apostrophe supposed to be pronounced in any way (or is 'Murican pronounced the same as Murican)?

Improve this question
11
  • 1
    The purpose of an apostrophe is simply to indicate that something is missing. "John's car" means "John, his car". At least that was what I was taught at school about 60 years ago. I think modern linguistics scholars may take a different view. – WS2 Feb 17 '20 at 18:32
  • 1
    @DanBron The possessive apostrophe also signifies missing letters. It’s just that in this specific case, the letters have been missing for several centuries. – Mike Scott Feb 17 '20 at 18:42
  • 1
    One accepted abbreviation of forecastle is fo'c'sle, where the second apostrophe shows that a letter (a) is missing but the first must just be taken as indicating that letter/s is/are missing. That it is possible that an apostrophe can just have the meaning << Caution: letters missing hereabouts >> is shown by the fact that the t may be dropped unannounced (though sometimes, a third apostrophe is inserted). From your examples, perhaps << Caution: letters missing hereabouts, with possible weird spelling variations >> is perhaps more accurate at times. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 17 '20 at 19:21
  • 1
    @WS2: In the genitive 's, the apostrophe marks the missing "e" of the "es" genitive suffix in singular masculine and neuter nouns in Old English. – Greybeard Feb 17 '20 at 20:58
  • 1
    @Greybeard How do you know that? Is there some historical scholarship available which endorses this idea? – WS2 Feb 17 '20 at 23:13

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.