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Talk:Mr Smith: Difference between revisions
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We don't seem to have a period in Mister Smith's name at the title, i.e. "Mr Smith" instead of "Mr. Smith." Is this a wikia limitation, or can it be fixed? [[User:Void Dreamer|Void Dreamer]] 19:36, November 2, 2010 (UTC) | We don't seem to have a period in Mister Smith's name at the title, i.e. "Mr Smith" instead of "Mr. Smith." Is this a wikia limitation, or can it be fixed? [[User:Void Dreamer|Void Dreamer]] 19:36, November 2, 2010 (UTC) | ||
:It's not at all a Wikia limitation; it's a stylistic choice. It comes from the assertion that this is "proper" British English. Apparently the British rule runs something like this: if an abbreviation includes both the first and last letters of the word being abbreviated, no period is used. So in British punctuation, it's [[Mr Smith]] but Rev. [[Arnold Golightly]]. What's weird, though, is that the British ''also'' don't put a period after "Ms", but that doesn't follow the above rule, since "Ms" doesn't actually stand for ''any'' word. | |||
:Anyway, since the [[Tardis:Manual of Style|Manual of Style]] asserts that British English is preferred, there's no period. So there ''is'' a reason for it, even if it does, I'd argue, look weird as hell. You can thank the French for this, by the way — they have exactly the same rules as the British on this issue. '''[[User:CzechOut|<span style="background:blue;color:white">Czech</span><span style="background:red;color:white">Out</span>]]''' [[User talk:CzechOut|☎]] | [[Special:Contributions/CzechOut|<font size="+1">✍</font>]] 12:21, January 17, 2011 (UTC) | |||
