Re: possesives in -s

At 02:41 09.8.2000 -0400, Muke Tever wrote:

> > From:    Roger Mills <romilly@...>
> > Subject: Re: interestin' factoids (mostly language-related)
> >
> > I've been taken to task for making the possessive of names ending in -s
>with
> > the simple apostrophe-- Mills' theory, Geurtjens' dictionary, Mr. Roberts'
> > rank.....
> > which I think is OK in British usage.  Or am I wrong on all counts?
It is OK by Brit usage, for I was taught that in Swedish school.  In
Swedish an apo is put when the word ends in -s: Lars' is the poss. of Lars,
Claes' of Claes etc, but *no* apo otherwise: Philip -> Philips, Karl ->
Karls, Johan -> Johans.  Some older style manuals favored Larses, Claeses,
but I never saw such forms in post-17th cent. texts!  I think it should
have an apo, since in mod. Swe as in mod Eng it is a clitic, not an
inflection: _Kungen av Danmarks_ "The King's of Denmark" is natural while
_Kungens av Danmark_ doesn't even sound old-fash, only wrong and totally
obsolete.

BTW: have you eber tried "Mills his theory"? :-)

>I was taught (in school, I suppose) that -s names always take full 's
>(Mills's) except for "Jesus".
>I don't know whether or not I speak it that way, though.
In Swe Jesus is exceptional in very formal Xian writing: Jesus -> Jesu,
else it is Jesus'.

And oh yes, I'm taken to task for writing _Buddhaer_, because I think
_Buddhor_ would comprise only the lady ones, if any.



/BP 8^)>
--
  B.Philip Jonsson mailto:bpX@netg.se mailto:melrochX@mail.com (delete X)
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