Editing Apostrophe (section)

===Historical development===
The apostrophe was first used by [[Pietro Bembo]] in his edition of ''[[De Aetna]]'' (1496).<ref name=Castellani>{{cite journal |last=Castellani |first=Arrigo |date=1995 |title=Sulla formazione del sistema paragrafematico moderno |trans-title=On the formation of the modern paragraphamatic system |journal=Studi linguistici italiani |volume=21 |pages=3–47:4 |language=it}}</ref> It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice.<ref name=Crystal>
{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |author-link=David Crystal |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2003 |page=203 |isbn=0521530334}}</ref>

====French practice==== 
Introduced by [[Geoffroy Tory]] (1529),<ref>{{cite book |first1=Urban Tigner |last1=Holmes |first2=Alexander Herman |last2=Schutz |title=History of the French Language |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jbjX4ebc2lsC&pg=PA73 73]|orig-date=1938 |date=1967 |publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers |isbn=9780819601919 }}</ref> the apostrophe was used in place of a vowel letter to indicate [[Elision in the French language|elision]] (as in {{lang|fr|l'heure}} in place of {{lang|fr|la heure}}). It was also frequently used in place of a final "e" (which was still pronounced at the time) when it was elided before a vowel, as in {{lang|fr|un' heure}}. Modern French [[orthography]] has restored the spelling {{lang|fr|une heure}}.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred |last=Ewert |title=The French Language |date=1933 |publisher=Faber & Faber |location=London |page=119}}</ref>

====Early English practice====
From the 16th century, following French practice, the apostrophe was used when a vowel letter was omitted either because of incidental [[elision]] ("I'm" for "I am") or because the letter no longer represented a sound ("lov'd" for "loved"). [[English orthography|English spelling]] retained many [[inflection]]s that were not pronounced as [[syllable]]s, notably verb endings ("-est", "-eth", "-es", "-ed") and the noun ending "-es", which marked either plurals or possessives, also known as [[Genitive case|genitives]] {{crossref|printworthy=y|(see [[#Possessive apostrophe|Possessive apostrophe]], below)}}. An apostrophe followed by "s" was often used to mark a plural;<ref name=Crystal/> specifically, the ''[[Oxford Companion]] to the English Language'' notes that:

{{blockquote|There was formerly a respectable tradition (17th to 19th centuries) of using the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in [[loanword]]s ending in a vowel (as in{{nbsp}}[...] ''Comma's are used'', [[Philip Luckombe|Philip Luckcombe]], 1771) and in the consonants ''s'', ''z'', ''ch'', ''sh'', (as in ''waltz's'' and ''cotillions'', [[Washington Irving]], 1804)...<ref name=OxComp92>{{cite book |title=The [[Oxford Companion]] to the English Language |editor-first=Tom |editor-last=McArthur |editor-link=Tom McArthur (linguist) |date=1992 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=75, 715}}</ref><ref name=OxComp18>{{cite book |title=The [[Oxford Companion]] to the English Language |editor1-last=McArthur |editor1-first=Tom |editor1-link=Tom McArthur (linguist) |editor2-last=Lam-McArthur |editor2-first=Jacqueline |editor3-last=Fontaine |editor3-first=Lise |date=2018 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=2nd |pages=44, 433}}</ref>}}

====Standardisation====
The use of [[elision]] has continued to the present day, but significant changes have been made to the [[possessive case|possessive]] and [[plural]] uses. By the 18th century, an apostrophe with the addition of an "s" was regularly used for all [[possessive case|possessive]] [[Grammatical number|singular]] forms, even when the letter "e" was not omitted (as in "the gate's height"). This was regarded as representing not the elision of the "e" in the "-e" or "-es" ending of the word being pluralized, but the elision of the "e" from the [[Old English]] [[genitive]] singular [[inflection]] "-es".

The plural genitive did not use the "-es" inflection,<ref name=Wilde2012>{{cite book |title=Old English Grammar |first=William R. |last=Wilde |date=2012 |publisher=Forgotten Books}}</ref> and since many plural forms already consisted of the "-s" or "-es" ending, using the apostrophe in place of the elisioned "e" could lead to singular and plural possessives of a given word having the exact same spelling. The solution was to use an apostrophe after the [[plural]] "s" (as in "girls' dresses"). However, this was not universally accepted until the mid-19th century.<ref name=Crystal/> Plurals not ending in -s keep the -'s marker, such as "children's toys, the men's toilet", since there was no risk of ambiguity.