Φίλη μοῦ ἔστειλε τὴν κάτωθι φρικτὴ εἴδησι:
«No more street sign apostrophes in England's second-largest city»
Fox News, Saturday, January 31, 2009
«On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.»
«No more street sign apostrophes in England's second-largest city»
Fox News, Saturday, January 31, 2009
«On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.»
A street sign naming St. Paul's Square with an apostrophe is seen. The local government will stop using apostrophes in its street signs....καὶ τὸ σχόλιο φίλου τῆς παλαιᾶς καλῆς τυπογραφίας:
«The horror, the horror...
I guess we people who care about the difference between an en dash and a hyphen, a true apostrophe and a foot sign, a double closing quotation mark and a inch sign are an endangered species. Basically extinct now, if you ask me.
Saddening to hear this, especially from England with its grand history of renowned typographers, type cutters, private presses and printers - from Joseph Moxon in the 17th century to my deceased friend Justin Howes, who thoroughly researched and digitized the Caslon typeface. Shame, shame, shame! England was the last country in universe I had expected this from!»
I guess we people who care about the difference between an en dash and a hyphen, a true apostrophe and a foot sign, a double closing quotation mark and a inch sign are an endangered species. Basically extinct now, if you ask me.
Saddening to hear this, especially from England with its grand history of renowned typographers, type cutters, private presses and printers - from Joseph Moxon in the 17th century to my deceased friend Justin Howes, who thoroughly researched and digitized the Caslon typeface. Shame, shame, shame! England was the last country in universe I had expected this from!»
O tempora, o mores!
Σχολίασα εγώ:
«Τρομερό! Μετὰ τὴν κατάργησι τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ τῶν τόνων, τώρα αὐτό!
Στοὺς ὑπολογιστὲς τώρα, ἀπόστροφος ( ᾿ ) (πολυτονικὸ πλῆκτρο AltGr-', space) ὑπάρχει μόνον στὸ unicode, ἐνῷ τὰ ἑλληνικὰ εἰσαγωγικὰ ( «» ) (πλῆκτρα AltGr-[ καὶ AltGr-]) περιλαμβάνονται καὶ στὸ 8-bit ascii.
Ἀλλὰ ἡ ἐσχάτη κατάπτωσις τῆς ἑλληνικῆς γραφῆς στὸ Διαδίκτυο εἶναι ἡ ἀντικατάστασις τοῦ ἑλληνικοῦ ἐρωτηματικοῦ ( ; ) ἀπὸ τὸ βαρβαρικὸν ? .
Ἐπαναλαμβάνω, λοιπόν:
Στοὺς ὑπολογιστὲς τώρα, ἀπόστροφος ( ᾿ ) (πολυτονικὸ πλῆκτρο AltGr-', space) ὑπάρχει μόνον στὸ unicode, ἐνῷ τὰ ἑλληνικὰ εἰσαγωγικὰ ( «» ) (πλῆκτρα AltGr-[ καὶ AltGr-]) περιλαμβάνονται καὶ στὸ 8-bit ascii.
Ἀλλὰ ἡ ἐσχάτη κατάπτωσις τῆς ἑλληνικῆς γραφῆς στὸ Διαδίκτυο εἶναι ἡ ἀντικατάστασις τοῦ ἑλληνικοῦ ἐρωτηματικοῦ ( ; ) ἀπὸ τὸ βαρβαρικὸν ? .
Ἐπαναλαμβάνω, λοιπόν:
Τὸ ἑλληνικὸ ἐρωτηματικὸ εἶναι τὸ ; καὶ γράφεται μὲ τὸ πλῆκτρο Q
»...Εὐτυχῶς, φίλος ἀπὸ πανεπιστήμιο τῆς Γαλλίας ἐξέπεμψε μιὰ ἀχτίδα φωτός:
«Ναί, αὐτὰ τὰ ἑλληνικὰ εἰσαγωγικὰ καὶ ἡ ἀπόστροφος εἶναι ἐπίσης καὶ γαλλικά, καὶ συστηματικὰ τὰ διορθώνουμε σὲ ὅλους τοὺς φοιτητὲς ποὺ μᾶς παραδίδουν ἐργασίες μὲ "" ἀντὶ γιὰ «» καὶ μὲ ' ἀντὶ γιὰ ’. Κι ἂν μᾶς ποῦν ὅτι εἴμαστε laboratoire d'informatique (κι ὄχι φιλόλογοι) τοὺς ἐξηγοῦμε ὅτι ἀκριβῶς εἶναι ζήτημα σωστῆς χρήσης informatique νὰ γράφεις στὸν ὑπολογιστὴ εὐρωπαϊκὰ κι ὄχι ἀμερικάνικα.»
«Ναί, αὐτὰ τὰ ἑλληνικὰ εἰσαγωγικὰ καὶ ἡ ἀπόστροφος εἶναι ἐπίσης καὶ γαλλικά, καὶ συστηματικὰ τὰ διορθώνουμε σὲ ὅλους τοὺς φοιτητὲς ποὺ μᾶς παραδίδουν ἐργασίες μὲ "" ἀντὶ γιὰ «» καὶ μὲ ' ἀντὶ γιὰ ’. Κι ἂν μᾶς ποῦν ὅτι εἴμαστε laboratoire d'informatique (κι ὄχι φιλόλογοι) τοὺς ἐξηγοῦμε ὅτι ἀκριβῶς εἶναι ζήτημα σωστῆς χρήσης informatique νὰ γράφεις στὸν ὑπολογιστὴ εὐρωπαϊκὰ κι ὄχι ἀμερικάνικα.»
Allons enfants de la Patrie!
(Πρὸ καιροῦ, ὁ ἴδιος μοῦ εἶχε πεῖ ὅτι τὸ πανεπιστήμιό τους ἐπρόκειτο νὰ ἐπιστρέψῃ software στὸν κατασκευαστή, ἀκυρώνοντας τὴν σύμβασι, ἐὰν ἡ ἐταιρεία δὲν διέθετε εἰδικὸ patch γιὰ τὴν γαλλικὴ γλῶσσα, ὥστε ὁ Γάλλος χρήστης νὰ μπορῇ νὰ βάζῃ στὸ username καὶ στὸ password (!) χαρακτῆρες μὲ accent aigu, accent grave, accent circonflexe! Ὄχι παίζουμε!)
Ὁλόκληρο τὸ ἄρθρον:
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήNo more street sign apostrophes in England's second-largest city
Fox News, Saturday, January 31, 2009
LONDON - On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.
But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark.
It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as "St. Pauls Square" or "Acocks Green."
This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all.
Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city's transport scrutiny committee, said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether "Kings Heath," a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe.
"I had to make a final decision on this," he said Friday. "We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do."
Mullaney hopes to stop public campaigns to restore the apostrophe that would tell passers-by that "Kings Heath" was once owned by the monarchy.
"Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed," he said. "More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don't want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it."
But grammarians say apostrophes enrich the English language.
"They are such sweet-looking things that play a crucial role in the English language," said Marie Clair of the Plain English Society, which campaigns for the use of simple English. "It's always worth taking the effort to understand them, instead of ignoring them."
Mullaney claimed apostrophes confuse GPS units, including those used by emergency services. But Jenny Hodge, a spokeswoman for satellite navigation equipment manufacturer TomTom, said most users of their systems navigate through Britain's sometime confusing streets by entering a postal code rather than a street address.
She said that if someone preferred to use a street name -- with or without an apostrophe -- punctuation wouldn't be an issue. By the time the first few letters of the street were entered, a list of matching choices would pop up and the user would choose the destination.
A test by The Associated Press backed this up. In a search for London street St. Mary's Road, the name popped up before the apostrophe had to be entered.
There is no national body responsible for regulating place names in Britain. Its main mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, which provides data for emergency services, takes its information from local governments and each one is free to decide how it uses punctuation.
"If councils decide to add or drop an apostrophe to a place name, we just update our data," said Ordnance Survey spokesman Paul Beauchamp. "We've never heard of any confusion arising from their existence."
To sticklers, a missing or misplaced apostrophe can be a major offense.
British grammarians have railed for decades against storekeepers' signs advertising the sale of "apple's and pear's," or pubs offering "chip's and pea's."
In her best-selling book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," Lynne Truss recorded her fury at the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy "Two Weeks Notice," insisting it should be "Two Weeks' Notice."
"Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended," she wrote.
Νὰ ἐνημερώσω ὅτι στὸ πληκτρολόγιο keymangreek, τὸ ἑλληνικὸ ἐρωτηματικὸ βρίσκεται στὴν ἴδια θέση μὲ τὸ ἀγγλικό. Ἔτσι ὅταν ὁ χρήστης γράφει ἀγγλικὰ βγαίνει ?, ἐνᾶ ὅταν γράφει ἑλληνικὰ βγαίνει ;
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήΓιὰ περισσότερες πληροφορίες στὸ keymangreek.gr
Εὐχαριστῶ γιὰ τὴν ἐπισήμανσι, Ἀμαρυλλίς. Θὰ γράψω προσεχῶς καὶ γιὰ τὸ KeymanGreek καὶ γιὰ τὶς τελευταῖες κινήσεις στὸν χῶρο τοῦ πολυτονικοῦ, τὸ facebook group, τὴν πρωτοβουλία «Δημοκρατία στὴν γλῶσσα» κ.ἄ. Νὰ εἶστε καλά!
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