Grammar question about Jimi Hendrix

Very clever. But I say a z is also a sibilant.

 

From the AP Stylebook (2007) on possessives:

Nothing about triple sibilants or anything like that. So I would say Hendrix's guitar or the Red Sox's success. Doesn't seem too difficult.

EDIT: Unless your specific paper's styleguide says otherwise, that is.

 

Whatever you call it, it ain't an "s" sound.

 

Well, this is way past the depth I wanted to wade into, I really wanted somebody to come up with a better explanation of the "Wind Cries Mary" lyric, but if you google triple sibilant and grammar, you'll see that other stylebooks do make the distinction, and Strunk and White address it without calling it a triple sibilant:

"Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by

the heel of Achilles

the laws of Moses

the temple of Isis"


Again, if you put another s on conscience' sake or righteousness' sake, you'd have a triple sibilant. But like most of this stuff, it doesn't really matter all that much, and I have to go vacuum the TV room now.

 

And for Simon:


Main Entry: sibilant
Function: noun
Date: 1788
: a sibilant speech sound (as English \s\, \z\, \sh\, \zh\, \ch(=tsh)\, or \j(=dzh)\)

(The careful reader might note that I got into all this shit by saying Red Sox's would be a triple sibilant. On that count, I apparently am full of it ... no mention of X being a sibilant, anywhere. So let's just forget the whole thing).

 

Socks'

 

This thread is yet another example of why I'm a tourist on this board.

 

I don't think Jimi cares one way or the other ;D

 

I read Red Sox's as "Red Sox-ez" not Red Sox-ez-ez"

I'm with Simon. Red Sox gets an apostrophe S, Hendrix does, too.

 

THat post really should have been End. Of. Thread.

 

Gotta admit, I'm intrigued by a journalist who thinks that saying "Moses" involves two "s" sounds.

 

From my college linguistics class ... The "s" sound and the "z" sound are related. The "s" is unvoiced and the "z" is voiced. That's the only difference. You form your mouth the same way to make both sounds.