Or is it hel’o?
Cap’n Crunch, since 1963.
Helo’?
Hell’o?
Capt’n Nemo’s. Chicago.
Hello?
More fun with eye-dialect apostrophes here.
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And an interesting lesson on the disparate uses of the apostrophe. We do at least have to credit "Cap'n Nemo's" with getting both apostrophes right. I guess the folks at "Captn's Pack" decided that a single apostrophe would just have to take on the entire apostrophical burden. Or they thought that "Capt'n's Pack" would look goofy, which it does, which might suggest a look at their branding, hmmm. :-)
Posted by: mike | August 23, 2011 at 07:45 AM
@Mike: Let's petition the bo'sun to string the Captn up from the fo'c'sle!
I just remembered that I'd written about these eye-dialect (or "apologetic") apostrophes in 2009, in a post about Dreyer's "Lil Drums." I've added the link at the end of the post:
http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2009/05/i-scream.html
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | August 23, 2011 at 07:50 AM
::shudder::
Painful. I know everyone thinks English majors (or former English majors; post college I guess we're just linguists) are snarky and overly excitable on the subject of grammar, but if we're going to screw up the language, could we maybe do it consistently?!
Posted by: tanita | August 23, 2011 at 08:17 AM
@Tanita: "Painful"? I disagree. Consistency may be the goal in English classes, but in branding, distinctiveness is paramount--and these various spellings (not grammar errors, incidentally) are certainly distinctive. They're all attempts at what's known as "eye dialect": written approximations of oral pronunciation. After all, we don't pronounce "captain" exactly as it's spelled (to rhyme with "map train"); we often elide the "t" and pronounce the "ai" like a short "i."
Of course, it's important for each brand to be consistent internally. We'd be puzzled if some cereal boxes carried the name "Captain Crunch."
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | August 23, 2011 at 10:26 AM