Bye bye hyphen...

[riggs]

From the BBC;

Having been around since at least the birth of printing, the hyphen is apparently enjoying a difficult time at the moment.

The sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has knocked the hyphens out of 16,000 words, many of them two-word compound nouns. Fig-leaf is now fig leaf, pot-belly is now pot belly, pigeon-hole has finally achieved one word status as pigeonhole and leap-frog is feeling whole again as leapfrog.

The blame, as is so often the case, has been put at least in part on electronic communication. In our time-poor lifestyles, dominated by the dashed-off [or should that be dashed off or dashedoff] e-mail, we no longer have time to reach over to the hyphen key...

Thought I'd post this FAO the spelling/grammar whores amongst us

[kenco_uk]

noes!

Is e-mail now email?

[steveo_mcg]

i thought email had been eMail or Email for a while now?

[Veles]

Not that bothered really, always thought it was a bit pointless.

[cpemma]

Originally Posted by BBC

Chris Robinson says she has bigger grammatical fish to fry, with undergraduates often needing an explanation as to the difference between a noun and a verb and where to place a full stop.

Oxford have only ditched some hyphenated word-groups, hopefully where ambiguity is unlikely.

Originally Posted by Oxford

Hyphenation in English is highly variable, and in many contexts, it really doesn't matter. The Fowler brothers, first editors of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, wrote in their preface to the 1911 edition:

The places where it does matter are summarized in the Oxford Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage (2004), the most important being

1. to make clear the unifying of the sense in compound expressions such as punch-drunk, cost-benefit analysis, or weight-carrying, or compounds in attributive use (that is, in front of the noun), as in an up-to-date list or the well-known performer;
   
   
2. to join a prefix to a proper name (e.g. anti-Darwinian);
   
   
3. to avoid misunderstanding by distinguishing phrases such as twenty-odd people and twenty odd people, or a third-world conflict and a third world conflict;
   
   
4. to clarify the use of a prefix, as in recovering from an illness and re-covering an umbrella;
   
   
5. to clarify compounds with similar adjacent sounds, such as sword-dance, co-opt, tool-like.
   
   
6. to represent the use of a common element in a list of compounds, such as four-, six-, and eight-legged animals.
   
   
7. in dividing a word across a line-break. Guidance on word division is given in reference books such as the Oxford Colour Spelling Dictionary (1996).

There's a difference between a smart arse and a smart-arse.

[Bungle]

Originally Posted by cpemma

Oxford have only ditched some hyphenated word-groups, hopefully where ambiguity is unlikely.

There's a difference between a smart arse and a smart-arse.

Was that a punch-line or Punch line

[oddball walking]

As long as bit-tech doesn't become bit tech i'm not bothered.

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by oddball walking

As long as bit-tech doesn't become bit tech i'm not bothered.

lol. Best post of this thread!

[cpemma]

Originally Posted by Bungle

Was that a punch-line or Punch line?

A smart arse could be a wise crack, a smart-arse may wise-crack.

[specofdust]

I generally try to be as backward and stuck in the past as I can with English, simply because the new things people want to introduce as generally crap.

However, this does actually seem like a good cull. While obviously, as pointed out by cpemma, there are some cases where the ol' hyphen is still a neccesity, there are many cases where it has become fairly pointless.

[supermonkey]

Originally Posted by cpemma

A smart arse could be a wise crack, a smart-arse may wise-crack.

Brilliant

-monkey

[Bungle]

Well the old Hyphen won't become obsolete as long as people still smile :-)

[M3G4]

www.bit%20tech.net

doesn't quite have the same ring to it as

www.bit dash tech.net :P

[oddball walking]

Originally Posted by Bungle

Well the old Hyphen won't become obsolete as long as people still smile :-)

What about this : ) (less the space )

[supermonkey]

Originally Posted by M3G4

www.bit dash tech.net :P

A hyphen is not the same as a dash.

-monkey

[Veles]

Originally Posted by supermonkey

A hyphen is not the same as a dash.

Now I see why people find it so difficult to learn English, it's got loads of pointless bits to it.

[Bungle]

Originally Posted by oddball walking

What about this : ) (less the space )

But where's the nose? Oh noes!!

[supermonkey]

Originally Posted by Veles

Now I see why people find it so difficult to learn English, it's got loads of pointless bits to it.

My advice is to do what the rest of us English speakers do: ignore the rules and make it up as you go along.

-monkey

[Bungle]

Originally Posted by supermonkey

My advice is to do what the rest of us English speakers do: ignore the rules and make it up as you go along.

-monkey

Or some fink like dat.

[cpemma]

Originally Posted by Veles

Now I see why people find it so difficult to learn English, it's got loads of pointless bits to it.

No, English grammar has many aids to avoid confusing the reader. Punctuation marks show the rhythm of a sentence - a translation from spoken to written words. But modern thought by the great unwashed writers is "Sod the reader, I know what I mean!"

OED have decided a "pot bellied pig" is unlikely to cause the reader to imagine a ceramic object; they most certainly have not ditched the hyphen entirely.