As startled as I was to learn that, a few years ago, a new species of supersized chimpanzees may have been found in Congo, I was even more startled to find what appears to be an example of apostrophe abuse in Dutch:
Link.
I’m surprised by this not least because I didn’t think that apostrophes were used to imply possession in Dutch. Are they? Should we rejoice that orthographical clumsiness seems not to be limited to Americans only, but makes us all brothers?
How about the tendency to insert prepositions where they don’t belong?
In this case, it is a plural apostrophe and not a possessive apostrophe. What is it that’s possessed by the gorillas that makes you believe it’s used in that sense?
So Dutch uses apostrophes to indicate possessive case then, Gest?
Oh yes…
You can see that in German very frequently. In the beginning, the apostrophe preceding a genitive s (my friend’s house) started spreading among German shopkeepers, naming their businesses Peter’s Bar or whatever - an apostrophe seems to have been common in German in these cases some time ago, as I encountered it in 18th and 19th century texts, but nowadays it’s considered incorrect, Peters Bar being the only correct manner.
Then came the apostrophe preceding plural s. This is just as wrong in German as it’s in English, but it happens.
The last few years have been featured an inflation of incorrect apostrophe usage.
There a few things as embarassing as making mistakes in a post complaining about other people’s mistakes, as I just did. “Feauring,” that is.
Or “Featuring,” even.
Wikipedia article (German language) on the use of superfluous apostrophes in German, the so-called Deppenapostroph (Depp = idiot).
(re the OP: From what very little I know of Dutch the plural of gorilla is in fact gorilla’s.)
As are all words ending with a vowel.
Oh, go away. I was editing the title to make it fit, and I forgot it was there.
No, no, nothing makes me think the gorillas are possessing anything. I can read Dutch well enough to see that, at least. The question is, is it correct to use a ‘plural apostrophe’, as you put it, in Dutch? Or is this an example of the same kind of carelessness which is so widespread in English?
See, this is why I love the German language, with its wonderful ability to form compounds. English actually does form similar compounds, but they are not recognized as such because they are still written as separate words. Moreover, it’s not done to the same extent as it is in German. I can’t think of any exact English equivalent to Deppenapostroph.
I had no idea!!! This IS an urgent crisis probably equivalent to what colour socks to wear while curling, at what speed knitting ought be attempted, or Just how many ants and other bugs smaller than 2 cm die on Canadian highways annually.
Can someone tell me if I translated the word uiterlijk correctly?
I’m pretty sure you’re correct, at that uiterlijk (“Outer look”) would be appearance.
You translated the whole thing perfectly. 