Re: Reason for African American names using apostrophes?
Thanks for that information. It's quite interesting to note that the occurance has only been around for the last 40 years or so. I, too, had thought of the Louisiana tie but being from the NE I thought there could be a different reason for the use in my area. It's curious that the US doesn't use diacritical marks more often as we are a nation of immigrants and the original names would have included them. I suppose in order to assimilate more easily many dropped the accent marks (voluntarily or not). It's a bit sad that with all our cultures and backgrounds we don't have a more diverse range of writing that is commonplace that would include these marks. The other option I see is the individual constantly correcting others to include them, or correct them on pronounciation that would have been obvious if the accent marks were used in the first place. Or as we see here, substituting another punctuation mark that exists incorrectly to achieve the desired effect. It's too bad.
By the way, how were you able to include them within your writing?
Thanks,
Tempestgirl