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August 16 Information

Genitive apostrophe

Why is there no genitive apostrophe in "King James Bible" (James')? Rex Sueciæ 07:15, 16 August 2015 (UTC)  reply

It was named after him; it didn't belong to him. cf. Queen Elizabeth Hospital etc.-- Shantavira| feed me 07:58, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
Yes, it was not his Bible, just a translation of it. KägeTorä - () ( もしもし!) 09:20, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
OK! Thanks. I do realise all that of course. The question was more semantic. The Bible translations in Swedish are also named after kings but have a geniteve -s, e.g. sv:Gustav Vasas bibel and sv:Karl XII:s bibel. So the languages treat the construction differently. Rex Sueciæ 10:05, 16 August 2015 (UTC)  reply
See King James Version#Name for the details. As with most Bible translations of the era, it doesn't have an "official" name (apart from "The Holy Bible"). It was first referred to as "King James's Bible" (with possessive) in 1797, "the authorized version" in 1801, and "the King James Bible" (no possessive) in 1856. Tevildo ( talk) 23:07, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
Thank you Tevildo! Very interesting. I must have missed that paragraph in the article. So historically there has been a possessive form also in English in these cases. Thank you all! Rex Sueciæ 06:09, 17 August 2015 (UTC)  reply
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Language desk
< August 15 << Jul | August | Sep >> Current desk >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.


August 16 Information

Genitive apostrophe

Why is there no genitive apostrophe in "King James Bible" (James')? Rex Sueciæ 07:15, 16 August 2015 (UTC)  reply

It was named after him; it didn't belong to him. cf. Queen Elizabeth Hospital etc.-- Shantavira| feed me 07:58, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
Yes, it was not his Bible, just a translation of it. KägeTorä - () ( もしもし!) 09:20, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
OK! Thanks. I do realise all that of course. The question was more semantic. The Bible translations in Swedish are also named after kings but have a geniteve -s, e.g. sv:Gustav Vasas bibel and sv:Karl XII:s bibel. So the languages treat the construction differently. Rex Sueciæ 10:05, 16 August 2015 (UTC)  reply
See King James Version#Name for the details. As with most Bible translations of the era, it doesn't have an "official" name (apart from "The Holy Bible"). It was first referred to as "King James's Bible" (with possessive) in 1797, "the authorized version" in 1801, and "the King James Bible" (no possessive) in 1856. Tevildo ( talk) 23:07, 16 August 2015 (UTC) reply
Thank you Tevildo! Very interesting. I must have missed that paragraph in the article. So historically there has been a possessive form also in English in these cases. Thank you all! Rex Sueciæ 06:09, 17 August 2015 (UTC)  reply

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