Apostrophes making century-long journey off the map
(NECN: Anya Huneke) – You may have noticed something slowly disappearing from the map. The apostrophe, often found in names of places such as towns – has been dropped in some cases, and the change hasn’t gone completely unnoticed. What’s in a name? Or, sometimes a better question, what’s not? The answer can differ- depending on where you go. In Vermont, you can hike up Camel’s Hump – with an apostrophe – or Camels Hump – without one. You can go shopping in Taft Corners, Tafts Corners, or Tafts’ Corners– in Williston. Or you can take a boat-ride in Mallets Bay in Colchester– the site formerly known as Mallet’s Bay, with an apostrophe. Across the state, the little punctuation mark has been disappearing– and apparently, the trend is nothing new. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum – an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont – says it dates back more than a century- to a move by the federal government, aiming for more efficiency. Stephen: “This federal agency, designed to standardize place names, dictated that apostrophes be dropped.” Change, however, has been slow- in Vermont and across the country. Greg Sanford: “Some towns kept the apostrophe, some removed it, some use both for the same place, some with, some without. Some communities like Martha’s Vineyard have fought to keep their apostrophe.” They’ve fought, Nissenbaum says, because removing the apostrophe is, technically, incorrect. And it removes the possessive– in, for example, Saxtons River- named after a surveyor who, legend has it, fell into the river and drowned. Stephen: “If you lose the sense that Saxton was a person – and it was his river – then it becomes simply a name.” Removing the apostrophe can also change the meaning, as Patty Delaney has found, living on Camels Hump Road in Duxbury. Grammarians may take issue with the missing apostrophes but chances are techies won’t. After all everything is abbreviated these days on phones and computers so why not on maps, too?” Greg: “The number of people who stop and care is probably diminishing rapidly.” As are the apostrophes, making a century-long journey off the map.
