Apologetic apostrophe

The apologetic or parochial apostrophe is a feature of Lowland Scots orthography, now widely proscribed as Anglocentric, whereby an apostrophe is inserted or appended to Scots words which critics claim creates the appearance of an English contraction, thus fostering the impression – common among speakers of English and Scots alike – that Scots is simply a barbarized, heavily elided form of English. To others however its use simply makes more sense with regards to how the words are said.

In most cases, Scots words never actually "lost" letters. For example, while the word "taen" would often be spelled "ta'en" (to resemble the English "taken"), the word in fact never contained a velar consonant. In the 14th century, according to an older Scots orthography, it was spelled "tane".

Robert Burns, though himself a speaker and promoter of Scots, made heavy use of the apologetic apostrophe in his writings. Though the feature is increasingly absent from Scots literature, it remains common in informal writing, and in transcription of Scots by English-speakers.

Apologetic apostrophe in Scottish Gaelic

Many people may not be aware of the parallel phenomenon in Scottish Gaelic. Just as some people assumed Lowland Scots to be bastardised English, others assumed Scots Gaelic to be bastardised Irish. As with Lowland Scots, in some cases, there is a genuine loss of letters, but in other cases, it is unnecessary. Scottish Gaelic has eradicated many apostrophes, so while "tha ann", becomes "th'ann", "'S e" (Is e) is invariably written "Se" and "'nam" ("ann mo") and "'gam" ("aig mo") are invariably written "nam" and "gam", "Ciad e?" is now often "Dè?".

ee also

* Nor Loch
* [http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1924332006 Crimes against the apostrophe] (The Scotsman 29.12.06)

References

* [http://www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk/ScotsSpellingGrammar.htm Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.]
*
*
* [http://www.scots-tung.com/page4.html Scots Tung]
* [http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/scotsintro.html Ordnance Survey]
* [http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/sesll/STELLA/STARN/prose/COWAN/intro.htm Mang Howes an Knowes]

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/INTRO/intro2.php?num=00