Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

homerfarmsby said
In BrE, would it be:

'I', he said, 'am disgusted.'

'That', he said, 'is nonsense.'

Commas outside the introductory quotes as shown?

Thanks.

Fowler and Fowler, in The King's English, published at Oxford in 1906, says that punctuation goes inside or outside the quote marks depending on whether the punctuation is part of the quotation.  The full quotations being I am disgusted and That is nonsense Thus in BrE, you;'ve got it right.'

In traditional USAian documents, it's a hard-and-fast rule that punctuation goes inside the quotes.  My 8th-grade grammar teacher taught inside the US, inside the quotes. I suspect it's more to do with accommodating bad USAian education by establishing easy rules.  For other examples, the Post Office declared that mames opf towns ending in -burgh would be changed to -burg, and only Pittsburgh has the gumption to insist otherwise.  There was no big fuss when Noble changed the name of Cleaveland to Cleveland' and the spelling stuck when Noble moved to Indiana and became a judge.

McCormick and Field fought over simplified spelling.  Cyrus mandated it in the Chicago Tribune and Marshal Field prohibited it in the Sun-Times.  Eventually, the Tribune won a few battles, mostly in automotive fields - ever see a drive-through or a through street? - but words like connexion are mostly extinct.  I suspect thru and thoro are pretty much the only simplified words to succeed.The battles between Fuield (Democrat) and McCormack (GOP) in city politics were legendary.  Supposedly, a Democratic Alderman proposed renaming Orchard Field (now known as O'Hare) after war hero George Marshall.  He was a republican leader and the Chicago Tribune carried an editorial in favor of the idea - but it only ran ini one edition.  Someone pointed out the airport would then be known as Marshall Field - and that put the kibosh to the idea.  According to family legend, my grandfather lived 160 miles from Chicago, and although grandma wanted the local paper for the ads, especially groceries, the local paper was Democratic, and grandpa wouldn't allow any but the Chicago Tribune in his house.  Grandma had to go next door and read the ads in their newspaper.