Subject:  Scores of readers reply to geography quiz |
Author:
Ashley
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Date Posted: 00:38:05 07/10/02 Wed
Nova Scotians know their geography.
A contest in the June 9 editions of The Sunday Herald asking readers to identify three place names with apostrophes - it should've said possessive apostrophes - prompted more than 100 people to mail in entries. Many more responded by e-mail, and they're still coming in.
The three Nova Scotia communities with officially recognized possessive apostrophes are Clark's Harbour, St. Peter's and the District of St. Mary's. The fifth edition of the Nova Scotia Atlas, donated by Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations, is on its way to contest winner Derek Gates of Bridgewater, who identified two of the three place names in a randomly selected winning entry.
And a nod also goes to several entrants who pointed out an error in an accompanying June 9 story on place names. The story said apostrophes in place names have been a no-no in Nova Scotia since the 1960s. Of course, that's incorrect, since many French place names contain apostrophes, for example, L'Ardoise and D'Escousse.
Possessive apostrophes were a problem for map-makers and other official record keepers and Ottawa banned them from new names in the early 1960s. Clark's Harbour, St. Peter's and the District of St. Mary's were allowed to keep their possessive apostrophes because they were incorporated prior to the ban. In Canada and in Nova Scotia, there are still lots of place names with an apostrophe due to French origins, said David Willis, provincial co-ordinator of geographical names.
"The Americans, to this day, use very few accents or apostrophes, but here in Canada, because of the bilingual nature of our country, the use of accents and apostrophes is more accepted," he said.
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