Steve Holden wrote:
Ben Finney wrote:
James Stroud <jstr...@mbi.ucla.edu> writes:
Ben Finney wrote:
James Stroud <jstr...@mbi.ucla.edu> writes:
Yes. I think it was the British who decided that the
apostrophe rule for "it" would be reversed from normal usage
relative to just about every other noun.
It also seems an indefensible claim to say that anyone “decided” it
would be that way, especially “the British”.
It's our language, dammit! Ours, ours, ours!
This decision was actually taken at a meeting of the Society of
British pedants on November 23, 1786. This led to a schism between
the British and the newly-independent Americans, who responded by
taking the "u" out of colour, valour, and aluminium.
Actually the Americans have been a bit confused about how to spell
aluminium. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_(element).
Remember that “it” is a pronoun. I see no reversal:
Ok. Pronouns are reversed.
Or, more generally: Pronouns, which are different in just about
every other way from other nouns, are different in this way also.
Is that about right?
Just think of them as "nounpros" and you won't go wrong.
I've just remembered a pronoun that does take an apostrophe: the
indefinite pronoun "one". Not that one uses it that often. :-)
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