Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official sanction

A relaxation of official rules around the correct use of apostrophes in German has not only irritated grammar sticklers but triggered existential fears around the pervasive influence of English.

Establishments that feature their owners’ names, with signs like “Rosi’s Bar” or “Kati’s Kiosk” are a common sight around German towns and cities, but strictly speaking they are wrong: unlike English, German does not traditionally use apostrophes to indicate the genitive case or possession. The correct spelling, therefore, would be “Rosis Bar”, “Katis Kiosk”, or, as in the title of a recent viral hit, Barbaras Rhabarberbar.

However, guidelines issued by the body regulating the use of Standard High German orthography have clarified that the use of the punctuation mark colloquially known as the Deppenapostroph (“idiot’s apostrophe”) has become so widespread that it is permissible – as long as it separates the genitive ‘s’ within a proper name.

The new edition of the Council for German Orthography’s style guide, which prescribes grammar use at schools and public bodies in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, lists “Eva’s Blumenladen” (Eva’s Flower Shop) and “Peter’s Taverne” (Peter’s Tavern) as usable alternatives, though “Eva’s Brille” (“Eva’s glasses”) remains incorrect.

The Deppenapostroph is not to be confused with the English greengrocer’s apostrophe, when an apostrophe before an ‘s’ is mistakenly used to form the plural of a noun (“a kilo of potato’s”).

The new set of rules came into effect in July, and the council said a loosening of the rules in 1996 meant that “Rosi’s Bar” had strictly speaking not been incorrect for almost three decades. Yet over the past few days, German newspapers and social media networks have seen a pedants’ revolt against the loosening of grammar rules.

A commentator in the tabloid Bild said seeing signs like “Harald’s Eck” (“Harald’s Corner”) made his “hair stand on end”, and that the proper use of the genitive form would be bemoaned by lovers of the German language.

A columnist in the venerable broadsheet the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung decried the council’s decision as further proof of the English language’s “victory march”, while one newspaper editor on LinkedIn complained that legalising the “idiot’s apostrophe” amounted to “genuflecting to English”.

Some linguists question whether the rise of the possessive apostrophe has much to do with the influence of English at all, however.

“The familiarity of English names may be a factor, but it could just as well stem from a desire to avoid confusion”, said Anatol Stefanowitsch, a linguist at Berlin’s Freie Universität. “What we tend to see when a language interacts with another prestige language is that it incorporates its vocabulary, and not grammar.”

Even before the rule clarification, the German orthographic council permitted the use of the possessive apostrophe for the sake of clarity, such as “Andrea’s Bar” to make clear that the owner is called Andrea and not Andreas.

“There is a long tradition of conservative circles fretting about international influences on the German languages,” said Stefanowitsch. “It used to be French, and now it’s mainly English”.

The Dortmund-based association Verein Deutsche Sprache tries to counteract the influence of English with an “anglicism index” that proposes alternative German words, such as Klapprechner instead of “laptop” or Puffmais instead of “popcorn”.