The apostrophe in English serves way too many purposes and leave us all confused, native and non-native speaker alike. Errors abound in private correspondence, and blare at us on public signs. If displayed in public, can it still be wrong? Yes!
It is common practice in English (as in many languages) to push two words together to make one. Cannot is the negative form of the word can. However, there is an alternate version which is can’t. In this case, the apostrophe appears in place of the letters “no” missing from the word not.
There are many of these negative forms with “n’t” standing for “not” without the “o”. Others that follow this patter: didn’t, isn’t, shouldn’t, don’t, etc. Easy, right? Not a lot of room for confusion. But English speakers are great for shortcuts and abbreviations. They do not limit their contractions to negative forms but expand to other verb forms. This leads to confusion with the homonyms there, their, they’re and your, you’re, yore.
The first set (there, their, they’re) are very often misused. The words their and they’re come from the base word of they. The contraction of they are becomes they’re. The possessive version of they is their (changing the Y to I is common in English when adding a suffix). Their is often used in error when they’re is the word needed. Neither of these two related words have any connection to there except for shared sound. Yet the word there is often used in error in place of both of the other words.
The second set of homonyms has fewer problems. Both your and you’re are words based on you. The first is the possessive form (your book=you own the book). The second is the contraction of the phrase. “you are.” “Yore” is a term describing a time in history and has nothing to do with the word you. It is not a homonym is all English-speaking locales, only those in which the long U sound of you is no longer evident when your or you’re is spoken. Yet, these three are often interchanged by those who do not know better.
The final and maybe most often misspelled pronoun contraction is based on the word it. When talking about an object, like a door, you can refer to its handle meaning the handle belongs to or is a part of the door. The problem for this pronoun comes when the object becomes the subject of the sentence as in “It’s covered in dust.” It’s is a contraction of the words it and is. These two words are very often confused with the possessive form its losing most of the time.
But there is one more confusion involving plural forms. English uses an S (or ES) suffix to indicate the word multiples: dog becomes dogs, for example. When forming a possessive version, dog becomes dog’s, but the possessive form of dogs is dogs’. In the past, the practice was to write dogs’s, but this has fallen out of practice. Dealing with a name like Jones which already ends in an S, the plural form Joneses and the possessive form Jones’ are often pronounced the same. Is it any wonder people get confused?
There is a person known as the Grammar Vigilante in England who—under cover of night–corrects these misspellings on public signs. Hooray, I say, for this helpful person, for if we see something spelled wrong enough times, we may very well choose to change the official spelling—historical evidence tells us this. Think about it. What if they’re and their were always spelled there? Or if your and you’re were always spelled yore? It could happen, maybe is happening already.
#EnglishLanguage
SPLINTERS FOR OCTOBER 2023
MY MOTHER’S CHILDHOOD MELODY
There was always music
In my mother’s childhood home
Arriving with a fiery taste
In the air circling the crystal set
Her grandfather had built
Which sizzled with arias from New York
Orchestras in Chicago and Pittsburgh
And static almost all the time
Accompanying the syncopation
Of her father’s dancing feet.
Operas and symphonies spun
Out their magic lure
From treasured 78rmp records
Laid carefully beneath a needle
To release the secrets
Hidden in their grooves.
The music shared the room
With the smell of rosin
On the bow of her brother’s violin,
Her grandad’s fiddle,
Her father’s mandolin.
Her own fingers on piano keys,
Or her mother’s so gentle touch
Moving a piano’s hammers
Striking perfectly tuned strings
Painting the air with melody
NOTHING IS LOST
From rock perch
high on a green-grown hill
we saw Ohio
as green-hued as we
and all below the velvet green valley
holding golden river’s water twist
and distant bridges, sky-girded,
winging silver against the blue.
We felt the gentle wind sing:
…….follow
………………follow
………………………….follow
Where? But we could not know where
or when or if ever.
There lay the magic.
…….follow
………………follow
………………………….follow
Song of a long ago summer’s day.
But nothing is lost;
Childhood dreams remain
forever remembered
forever unblemished.
DRYDOCK CREW
High spirited, free thinkers all,
They thought they were indestructible.
No soft hands in this hard-driven crew,
Yet hearts as soft as mush at times.
They could cradle a baby to sleep
Or lend a shoulder to cry upon.
They might even shed a tear or two
When a friend crossed the bar.
It was a draft of cold beer for them,
Not that pink champagne bubbly stuff.
Their bosses did not order,
But asked for their help
Because every job was finished right.
They were proud of their unique skills
Used in repairing those battered war-torn ships.
Please! No applause is needed here.
But old Father Time brooks no denial—
Their ranks dwindle one by one
Until there may not even be a memory left.
Will anybody remember the one called “Rock”?
AUTHOR NOTES
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“NOTHING IS LOST” was first published in 1976 by POETRY FORUM. The poem reflects the author’s nostalgia for her youth in the Ohio Valley region of West Virginia and is especially applicable this month of her birth.
REFRACTIONS –a poem by Robert Roxby
“DRYDOCK CREW” asked if anyone would remember the one called “Rock.” Have you guessed? It was the author, of course. The poem was written in remembrance of his first crew (painters) in 1942 at the Long Beach Naval Yard, the first year the author made California his new home. His daughter read this poem as part of his eulogy, a service which was attended by another drydock team member. He was indeed remembered. The poem is included this week for November 13, Navy Day.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“A MOTHER’S CHILDHOOD MELODY” appears this month of the author’s mother’s birth to retell the story of how music accompanied her mother’s memories of her home in West Virginia which began before there was television and even radio was relatively new.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR OCTOBER 2023
AN OLD WOMAN’S HAIR
Once upon a time
My hair rippled
And glistened in the sun
And swung from side to side
With the flippancy of youth.
What remains, lank and thin
Is not my hair, my mane.
This is a charade
Of what once was
A dastardly trick played by time.
No barrette strains to hold my tresses.
Clips slip, fall away and are lost.
Ribbons, too, fail to stay in place.
Scarves and hats may hide
But never replace what once was.
The thick, richness of yesteryear.
DREAM’S END
Green hills
And sun-drowned valley
Deep in dreaming.
But when the temblor struck
How that world rose up
With rending quake
And mountain roar,
Wild with coming awake.
Survey the dark damage:
The hills—ravished, un-greened;
Carved rock—scarred and bleak;
And struggling to a new pulse-beat,
The sunless valley
Shadowed by an escarped sleep.
A PLAGUE OF APOSTROPHES
The apostrophe in English serves way too many purposes and leave us all confused, native and non-native speaker alike. Errors abound in private correspondence, and blare at us on public signs. If displayed in public, can it still be wrong? Yes!
It is common practice in English (as in many languages) to push two words together to make one. Cannot is the negative form of the word can. However, there is an alternate version which is can’t. In this case, the apostrophe appears in place of the letters “no” missing from the word not.
There are many of these negative forms with “n’t” standing for “not” without the “o”. Others that follow this patter: didn’t, isn’t, shouldn’t, don’t, etc. Easy, right? Not a lot of room for confusion. But English speakers are great for shortcuts and abbreviations. They do not limit their contractions to negative forms but expand to other verb forms. This leads to confusion with the homonyms there, their, they’re and your, you’re, yore.
The first set (there, their, they’re) are very often misused. The words their and they’re come from the base word of they. The contraction of they are becomes they’re. The possessive version of they is their (changing the Y to I is common in English when adding a suffix). Their is often used in error when they’re is the word needed. Neither of these two related words have any connection to there except for shared sound. Yet the word there is often used in error in place of both of the other words.
The second set of homonyms has fewer problems. Both your and you’re are words based on you. The first is the possessive form (your book=you own the book). The second is the contraction of the phrase. “you are.” “Yore” is a term describing a time in history and has nothing to do with the word you. It is not a homonym is all English-speaking locales, only those in which the long U sound of you is no longer evident when your or you’re is spoken. Yet, these three are often interchanged by those who do not know better.
The final and maybe most often misspelled pronoun contraction is based on the word it. When talking about an object, like a door, you can refer to its handle meaning the handle belongs to or is a part of the door. The problem for this pronoun comes when the object becomes the subject of the sentence as in “It’s covered in dust.” It’s is a contraction of the words it and is. These two words are very often confused with the possessive form its losing most of the time.
But there is one more confusion involving plural forms. English uses an S (or ES) suffix to indicate the word multiples: dog becomes dogs, for example. When forming a possessive version, dog becomes dog’s, but the possessive form of dogs is dogs’. In the past, the practice was to write dogs’s, but this has fallen out of practice. Dealing with a name like Jones which already ends in an S, the plural form Joneses and the possessive form Jones’ are often pronounced the same. Is it any wonder people get confused?
There is a person known as the Grammar Vigilante in England who—under cover of night–corrects these misspellings on public signs. Hooray, I say, for this helpful person, for if we see something spelled wrong enough times, we may very well choose to change the official spelling—historical evidence tells us this. Think about it. What if they’re and their were always spelled there? Or if your and you’re were always spelled yore? It could happen, maybe is happening already.
#EnglishLanguage