English spellings/Catalogs/Apostrophe

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Apostrophe

The initial apostrophe is shaped (in fonts where there are different shapes) like a 9, not a 6: this contrasts with the use of inverted commas, where the opening comma is shaped like a 6 (or there can be two: 66) and the closing comma like a 9 (or 99): "sixty-sixes and ninety-nines".

Words that begin with an apostrophe are:

’em them = um hmmm *əm

’tís and ’tẁas - poetic use of initial apostrophe, replacing omitted initial í of ít ís and ít ẁas