Peter,
I haven't read into the history of punctuation in a long time.
But I think the "his" story has little or no reality. Here
is the wikipedia.com explanation:
Despite
the above, the English possessive did originate in a genitive case.
In Old
English, a
common singular genitive ending was -es. The apostrophe in the modern
possessive marker is in fact an indicator of the e that is
"missing" from the Old English morphology. . . .
The 18th
century explanation that the apostrophe might replace a genitive pronoun, as in "the
king's horse" being a shortened form of "the king, his
horse", is erroneous (a construction which actually occurs
in
German
dialects and has replaced the genitive there, together with the
"of" construction that also exists in
English).
Ain't wikipedia great?
Max
I seem to remember reading somewhere that
the "'s" was actually a contraction
for "his." I think when a person who doesn't
write makes a mark on a
document, we write undert it "John Doe his mark."
This is the "his" that is now
contracted into "'s." Any truth to this?
Peter Adams
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<HTML><FONT FACE=3Darial,helvetica><HTML><FONT
COLOR=3D"#000000" FACE=3D"Gen=
eva" FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" SIZE=3D"2">I
seem to remember reading somewhere th=
at the "'s" was actually a contraction for
"his." I think when a pers=
on who doesn't write makes a mark on a document, we write undert it
"John Do=
e his mark." This is the "his" that is
now contracted into "'s." =
; Any truth to this?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Peter Adams<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" FACE=3D"Geneva"
FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" SIZE=3D"=
2"></FONT></HTML>
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<p>
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