Local authorities in the British region of North Yorkshire have announced a ban on the use of apostrophes on street signs due to digital databases and potential search problems. In the English language, an apostrophe before "s" indicates possession, while just "s" at the end of a word indicates plural. Not all residents were pleased with the innovation.
The council stated that all new road signs will be made without apostrophes, regardless of previous usage. Residents of the resort town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, who were interviewed by the BBC, are calling on the authorities to leave the apostrophe. Moreover, someone is manually adding apostrophes to new signs.
One of the disgruntled residents, former teacher Postie Sam, complains about a sign with the street name St Mary's Walk: "I pass by this sign every day, and it makes my blood boil when I see improper grammar or punctuation." However, the sign has now been altered by an unknown person - an apostrophe was drawn on it. Postie calls this a "genius" move.
The teacher explains that she has spent a lot of her life teaching children the basics of grammar and demands that correct spelling remain on the signs. Several other surveyed residents share a similar opinion.
Ruby Wong, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the city, is not against the changes: "Honestly, since I'm not from this country, it doesn't matter because the pronunciation is the same."
Dr. Ellie Ray, who lectures on English language and linguistics at the University of York, says that the apostrophe is a relatively new invention in writing:
"In written form, you can say that they can eliminate ambiguity in things that can be ambiguous, so they distinguish between two holy Marys walking arm in arm, and 'I live on St Mary's Alley,' but in practice these two statements are not ambiguous. If I say that I live on St Mary's Street, [because of the same pronunciation] we expect the street name or some address."
The North Yorkshire Council refers to the experience of other regions in the UK. Similar decisions by local authorities, as well as publications about them, have existed for many years.
The Council's press secretary added: "All punctuation will be considered, but avoided where possible because street names and addresses, when stored in databases, must comply with the standards set out in BS7666. This limits the use of punctuation marks and special characters (such as apostrophes, hyphens, and ampersands) to avoid potential search problems in databases, as these symbols have specific meanings in computer systems.".
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