On 2025-08-25 11:05, Robert Elz wrote:
If they considered
U+0027 too encumbered with confusion to recommend using, they could have
easily just added a new code point that is uniquely apostrophe.
The Unicode developers did exactly what you suggest. It did not work.
They introduced ʼ (U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE), and through
Unicode 2.1.9 (1999) this was listed as the preferred character for the
apostrophe used in English possessives and plurals.[1] However, this did
not work as people in practice largely used ’ (U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE
QUOTATION MARK) instead, partly due to longstanding practice in
high-quality typography. So starting in Unicode 3.0.0 (1999) the Unicode
developers changed their mind and started recommending common practice.[2]
[1]: https://www.unicode.org/Public/2.0-Update/NamesList-1.txt
[2]: https://www.unicode.org/Public/3.0-Update/NamesList-3.0.0.txt
