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Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

theguardian.com

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Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#61

Post by pjot »

Spivak wrote: post #39
pjot wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is “codes” - I hear this often from non-native colleagues

This one is honestly confusing. * Error codes — correct. * Their personal codes — correct. * Multiple codes of conduct — correct. And then computer code is used roughly like the noun 'writing' except you can say writings where appropriate.

The difference lies in how we conceptualize the noun:

- Computer code is seen as a continuous substance or body of work, like "writing" or "music."

- Other types of codes are seen as discrete units or systems.

It's similar to how we say "information" (uncountable) but "facts" (countable), even though they're related concepts.

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#62

Post by [deleted] »

mattferderer wrote: post #20

Made me think of this old joke that's been on HackerNews, Reddit, etc for years: The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that wou…

[deleted]

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#64

Post by psychoslave »

Having French as mother tongue, I always find fascinating when the French and German official bodies go postal about such a topic. It’s like looking some parents complaining of the retro-influence of some common bastard children. :P

Now, there are languages for which Globish can be part of an existential threat, but German and French are nowhere close to this. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_endangered_languages

There are also a measurable economical issues for non-English-native nations to have to use the de facto lingua-franca of the day that is English. Of course neither German nor French would be a better alternative as a global international neutral language.

To my knowledge, the only proposal that gained some modest but significant results on that side over the last century is Esperanto. You know, the language against which France has put its veto has it was proposed as language of communication in League of Nations (1920s) or UNESCO (1954) and still is unhelpful with its adoption in United Nations.

Fun fact, Germany has a city where street names and many other things are translated in Esperanto: https://uea.facila.org/artikoloj/movado/la-esperanto-urbo-r3...

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#65

Post by psychoslave »

okeuro49 wrote: post #7
theandrewbailey wrote: post #2

> The Deppenapostroph is not to be confused with the English greengrocer’s apostrophe, when an apostrophe before an ‘s’ is mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun (“a kilo of potato’s”). Grocer's apostrophes annoy me, along with words like "advices" (advice is an abstract noun and can't be plural, like "happiness") and "learnings" (use "lessons" instead).

"informations" is a good one for non-native English language speakers to look out for.

But did you know that there huge load of "datas" out there?

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#66

Post by nomilk »

I knew of a building named Water's Edge, but spelled "Waters Edge". The absence of a possessive apostrophe was bothersome but I realised there's a case for sacrificing correctness for things like ease of communication and how the words look.

An insight from Oscar Wilde:

> Mr. Noel, in one of his essays, speaks with much severity of those who prefer sound to sense in poetry. No doubt, this is a very wicked thing to do. But he himself is guilty of a much graver sin against art when, in his desire to emphasise the meaning of Chatterton, he destroys Chatterton's music. In the modernised version he provides of the wonderful Songe to Ælla, he mars the poem's metrical beauty with his corrections, ruins the rhymes, and robs the music of its echo. [1]

(^^ that's from a short but wonderful essay, worth reading!)

[1] https://ia800203.us.archive.org/23/items/collectedworksau12w...

Re: Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval

#69

Post by diggan »

_visgean wrote: post #37
mattferderer wrote: post #20

Made me think of this old joke that's been on HackerNews, Reddit, etc for years: The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that wou…

I think the conclusion is wrong; that sounds much more like dutch.

I think that says a lot about the origin of the joke, which most likely comes from outside Europe :)
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