Hyphens make a difference

[Dave Miller]

We know that the semicolon and the apostrophe are regarded by some as nowadays irrelevant and unnecessary. It seems perhaps that the poor little hyphen is heading the same way ...

For reasons that don't matter here, I was looking into quite when cars stopped having asbestos in their brake shoes. On the website of the UK's Heath and Safety Executive, I found this:

"In the past, asbestos was used in motor vehicles as the friction material in clutches, automatic transmission and brake linings, and in gaskets. The use of asbestos in these components was prohibited from 1999, with the exception that pre 1973 vehicles could continue to be fitted with asbestos containing brake shoes until 2004. Therefore, it is possible that some older and 'classic' vehicles could still contain these asbestos containing products. The supply, possession for supply and fitting of asbestos products to motor vehicle, trailers etc is now banned.”

So, before 2004, people could fit asbestos to their cars, as long as the asbestos contained brake shoes?

[Verbivore]

Dave: That's a good example of a phenomenon I encounter every time I read material written or published in the USA. American English appears to be generally averse to the hyphen (Merriam-Webster and the The New Yorker excepted). That mark is also starting to disappear in AU, including in government publications (despite their promotion in the official government style guide, which, it appears, nobody bothers to consult or follow any more). Whenever editing, I liberally apply hyphens wherever I consider them necessary.

Here is a piece from Merriam-Webster (hyphenated) on the topic: The Comma Queen Meets Mr. Hyphen.

Here is a site full of Comma Queen videos.

Does the asbestos in your Bonds contain brake shoes?

PS: In the early '70s I worked at a manufacturer of brake-shoe linings (for trains). There was a massive flywheel in the factory, and one day the flywheel over-sped and exploded, destroying the factory and killing three operators. Fortunately, I was in the office, a building some 100 metres away; all that happened there was some window breakage. All employees were, over the following few years, tested for signs of asbestos-related health issues.

[Little Jack Horner]

“For reasons that don’t matter…” Who says the reasons don’t matter, Dave? To whom do they not matter? They matter to me. What you really mean is for reasons you prefer not to disclose! Sorry. Just being silly or pedantic. Or something.

I certainly hope that the hyphen is not being abandoned although I admit that I had to read the example you provided twice before I noticed the omission. I think it is unlikely that anyone would have been misled. No doubt examples of sentences can be found in which a missing hyphen would result in ambiguity.

I have to say (No, that is not true, I merely wish to say) that I am a fan of hyphens as well as apostrophes and semicolons and my life would not be the same without them. As someone who makes a virtue of idleness, I have also, during the last couple of years, become a fan of the Oxford comma which is useful to avoid ambiguities which might otherwise require careful sentence reconstruction. I am also a fan of the em-dash which I use frequently (but with a space on each side). Some of my friends would say I need to “get a life”, but I am over twenty-one and can please myself.

If we are looking for redundant characters, how about the letter X? I can think of no word in which it could not be replaced perfectly adequately with Z or KS. Abandonment of that letter would have the enormous advantage of reducing the number of letters in the alphabet to 25 which is a number which cannot be exactly divided by 2 and by 13 and so leave a whole number. 25 can only be divided by 5 while leaving a whole number and so is mathematically more economical.

To continue the nonsense in my first paragraph, how about starting a forum dedicated to the abolition of the letter X?

[Verbivore]

Jan 12, 2023 21:57:15 GMT Little Jack Horner said:

[…] how about starting a forum dedicated to the abolition of the letter X?

If X were to be abolished, how would we express the unknown quantity?

I grew up listening to The Goons on the wireless, and have never forgotten their definition of expert (ekspert?): "X is the unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure". Eks is the unknown … ?

Mathematicians would no doubt stage a revolt were X abolished.

[Dave Miller]

Not use the x?

Quite possible, if we were starting afresh. But we’re not, so would be faced with such existential problems as how to deal with X-rays, treasure maps, noughts and crosses, stock cubes, wrong answers and loving expressions at the end of letters.

I’d put it in the “too difficult” drawer.

[Twoddle]

I'm an ardent supporter of the hyphen, it being essential but much under-rated and under-used. Perhaps we need a Hyphen Protection Society, from which we could devolve a Not-the-HPS Message Board.