Noncompositional

Starting a few months ago me and my friend Klinton started wondering if there was any pattern in the placing of so-called extraneous apostrophes. For whatever reason stores seemed to want to advertise pizza’s and pasta’s instead of pizzas and pastas, and there were car’s and even truck’s all over. Klinton first suggested a “place an apostrophe after words ending in vowels” rule, and this indeed seemed to be a very common occurance, though of course there was no shortage of counter examples. Then Klinton found several websites that specifically discouraged this use, some even calling them fake “rules.” For instance,

Mark says … it is common opinion that words ending in vowels take an apostrophe when plural. This is wrong. This editorial style guide from the M&D Department at Sheffield Hallam U. has Beware of unnecessary apostrophes in the plural forms of words ending in vowels. Refer to Chambers Dictionary when in doubt. Finally, the grammar monster remarks on the common (mis)use of the apostrophe after words that end in vowels or in the letter s, though there is no mention of any “rule” to that effect.

Unfortunately, no one makes any reference to usage manuals that actually contain this rule. The above-mentioned Chambers Dictionary has an online version here, but the usage entry for “apostrophe” didn’t mention incorrect usages explicitly, except to note that they’re no longer obligatory in “clipped” forms like bus, plane, and phone. Well, I am quite sure that the rest of the volume is quite honest in usage advising, this author must object to such permissive sentiments. Dropping the apostrophe in ‘bus, indeed. I, for one, am appalled.

But seriously, if anyone has any idea about where this rule came from, or has a pointer to any paper- or e-published material that specifically advocates it, I’d be glad to hear about it.