on the apostrophus and the hyphen

January 08, 2008, 15:26

Things were so much better when orthography was ad libitum.

quote:
1. The learned printeres uses to symboliz apostrophus and hyphen as wel as a, b, c.

2. Apostrophus is the ejecting of a letter or a syllab out of one word or out betuene tuae, and is alwayes marked above the lyne, as it wer a comma, thus ’.

3. Out of one word the apostrophus is most usual in poesie; as Ps. 73, v. 3, for quhen I sau such foolish men, I grug’d, and did disdain; and v. 19, They are destroy’d, dispatch’d, consum’d.

4. Betuene tuae wordes we abate either from the end of the former or the beginning of the later.

5. We abate from the end of the former quhen it endes in a voual and the next beginnes at a voual; as, th’ ingrate; th’ one parte; I s’ it, for I see it.

6. In abating from the word following, we, in the north, use a mervelouse libertie; as, he’s a wyse man, for he is a wyse man; I’l meet with him, for I wil meet with him; a ship ’l of fooles, for a ship ful of fooles; and this we use in our common language. And quhilk is stranger, we manie tymes cut of the end of the word; as, he’s tel the, for he sal tel the.

7. This for apostrophus. Hyphen is, as it wer, a band uniting whol wordes joined in composition; as, a hand-maed, a heard-man, tongue-tyed, out-rage, foer-warned, mis-reported, fals-deemed.

[From Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue; A Treates, noe shorter then necessarie, for the Schooles, Be Alexander Hume, (ca.1617) chapter 10.]

January 10, 2008, 08:30

dalehileman

Proper use of the hyphen in its capacity as compound adjectival modifier is very important, especially in legal documents:

one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater--has one eye, one horn, flies, is purple, and eats people

one eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater--has at least one eye but could have more

one eyed, one horned, flyin' purple people eater--two separate creatures, one having at least one eye and the other at least one horn

one-eyed, one-horned-flyin' purple people eater--one of his horns flies by itself; total no. horns however unspecified

one-eyed, one-horned, flyin'-purple people eater--creature's skin is shade of purple referred to as "flyin'"

one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple-people eater--eats only purple people

one-eyed, one-horned-flyin'-purple people eater--one of his horns is of flyin' purple hue

one-eyed, one-horned, flyin'-purple-people eater--eats only purple people who also fly

January 13, 2008, 09:43

<Asa Lovejoy>

I find it odd that as we dismiss the use of the hyphen (whoever says, "out-rage" to-day?) we increase in use - or, should I say, misuse - of apostophe's

January 13, 2008, 10:23

jerry thomas

Its specially tragic when the mis-use of apostrophe's has lead to our youth's use of tobacco, alcohol, and who knows what else .... ?

January 13, 2008, 11:55

<Asa Lovejoy>

What else? Why, to playing pool!!!