Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hyphen, we hardly knew ye

The world of punctuation is in flux, as is every other world we know of. The steady-state model of the universe is gone with the solar wind, and so we are painfully aware that the only constant is change.

That doesn't mean we have to like it. On the whole, making a friend of change is a good approach to life, but, remember, everything in moderation. I, for one, am vexed by the disappearance of the hyphen. It's such a useful little mark. Why is it headed for the linguistic dustbin?

Well, for one thing, the Associated Press says so. The AP Stylebook recently caved to anti-hyphen trends and changed its position, vis-a-vis e-mail. After years of instructing journalists to use the hyphen, they now decree that, from now on, e-mail is email. What's next, AP? "You" becomes "u"? Stop this bus! I want to get off.

Here are a few examples showing the worth of the missing hyphen: A news report (okay, a gossip report) gave us this bit of confusion—"Bristol Palin faced off with an angry bargoer at Saddle Ranch bar and restaurant in West Hollywood Thursday night." Bargoer? I got there eventually, but wouldn't "bar-goer" have been a bit clearer?

This from a blogger: "Not a Whole Foods fan here, by the way. It reminds me too much of food coops. I have hated food coops since circa 1969." I know what chicken coops are, but food coops are a mystery. Food co-ops, on the other hand, I'm aware of. I just can't face that much produce being thrust at me each week.

I ran across a column with this headline—"Reinter the death tax." That one took a few more blinks before my brain said, "Oh, re-inter. I get it."

Readers, unite. The hyphen is our friend. Let's show it some love.

10 comments:

  1. Please save the em dash and en dash, too.

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  2. I'm doing my part. I would be silenced without the em dash.

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  3. Love your examples here! Not a hyphen example but discussions about punctuation always remind me of my favorite. The spelling of D'Antonio was given as "D, comma to the top, A-n-t-o-n-i-o." Makes me laugh every time!

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  4. The apostrophe will be featured in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

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  5. You present excellent reasons to miss the atrophy of hyphens, Lucy. Even knowing that I was looking for missing hyphen in your examples, I had to read reinter and coop twice. Bargoer wasn't as difficult because it involved consonants, which frequently indicate a syllabic break. At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I say thanks for being firm. We could use a little more conviction these days.

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  6. Where were you when I wasn't paying attention in English class. Great examples. Please help this world avoid slipping into the abyss of texting jargon.

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  7. For normal non-shorthand writing (e.g. texting), the dropping of hyphens from closely connected words is the normal etymology. For example, consider "checklist." It was two words until circa 1880, then it was hyphenated until late 20 century. So progressing from "electronic mail" to "electronic-mail" to "e-mail" to "email" is the normal etymology. As a combination of words become more widely used they evolve to a new word and thus the hyphen becomes superfluous. I prefer the non-hyphenated new words. The hyphen will continue to rise again as new word combinations are evolved.

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  8. Hi, Ken. You're right that the normal evolution is from hyphenated word to non, but sometimes at the expense of ease in reading. For instance, when "mini-series" became "miniseries," I thought I had found a new word, pronounced mih-NISS-ur-ees. Also, a former co-worker (coworker?) who was an amateur film maker amused me by talking about a "by-AH-pic." He meant "BY-oh-pic" but since it was rendered "biopic," he thought it rhymed with myopic.

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  9. Hi Lucy. Yes, I have corrected a young person who mispronounced biopic. I realize this is so yesterday, but when in doubt check it out--use the dictionary. How many times has assume made an ass out of u and me or your coworker? One might also pronounce "something" as "so-meth-ing" as one of my HIspanic ESL students did. I correct the mis-parsing of English words using Hispanic parsing in every class. And they help me with my mis-parsing of Spanish words using English parsing. But once I show them it is made up of the two words and pronounce them, then they understand. I'm afraid the mispronouncing of words will exist and be corrected by those who use the dictionary (paper or e-copy or is it ecopy now?).

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  10. Hi Lucy, In response to my blog about compound words http://kenmagee.blogspot.com/, you said that you are pro-hyphen. I like hyphens too, but only when used correctly. The misspelling of compound words is, in my mind, as bad as any other mistake. I learnt that to my cost when my book was returned from the proofreader with redlining highlighting the error of my ways!

    Look at all the missed opportunities for hyphens in this comment!

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