A fast-food chain coming to N.J. may know chicken and biscuits, but not apostrophes

The fast-food restaurant Bojangles is coming to New Jersey. Before it does, I feel a solemn responsibility to inform you: It’s a punctuation coward.

Last month the zoning board in Piscataway, N.J., approved plans for the North Carolina-based chicken and biscuits (or as they say, unnecessarily, “chicken ‘n biscuits”) chain to open in the township. The company is planning 10 restaurants across Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, and Union Counties.

But until recently, the company was too chicken to even say where the apostrophe in its name was supposed to go.

For years, the official Bojangles logo included an apostrophe right smack on top of the S.

Not before, not after.

This was obviously wrong. But it was also hilarious. (It’s funny enough to be a major plot point in my original musical — The Angry Grammarian — coming to South Philly next spring.) The letter Ś — with an accent atop the S — does exist … in the Polish alphabet. But there was nothing to suggest that Mr. Bojangles or his chicken had Polish roots.

The only plausible explanation is that the restaurant chain couldn’t decide whether the apostrophe was supposed to go before or after the S, so it split the difference like splitting a perfectly flaky biscuit.

» READ MORE: Chestnut Hill is fighting over ‘a’ vs ‘an’. Which goes before SCH? | The Grammarian

It wasn’t always this way. When the company started in Charlotte, N.C., in 1977, it was “Bojangle’s,” like McDonald’s, with a jaunty star dotting the J. At some point, that apostrophe — like North Carolina itself — drifted rightward, landing in the middle of the S. Then in February 2020, the company claimed on Twitter that the apostrophe was (despite what the logo suggested) supposed to come after the S.

But then COVID-19 set in, claiming not just our health and safety but also punctuation. By summer 2020, Bojangles had rebranded — and dropped the apostrophe entirely. The errant punctuation flew the coop.

The apostrophe-less Bojangles is the one growing into the Garden State. That goofy star still dots the J.

To be fair, when a word — especially a name — ends in an S, the apostrophe rules are hard and maddeningly inconsistent. Anyone who tells you there are universal rules about this is either mistaken or lying.

Some publications will tell you to always add an S after an S-plus-apostrophe. Others will say to never add the S. Still others have long lists of exceptions that are only semi-rooted in logic. To take just one example, the venerable language expert H.W. Fowler says to remove the S after the apostrophe … but only in “verse” or in “poetic or reverential contexts.” So he’d have you say St. James’s Place, but Jesus’ disciples.

That’s why consistency is paramount when it comes to apostrophes and words that end in S: You can always find some reputable source to justify your decision, whether you’re writing -s’ or -s’s.

As long as you’re consistent, you can’t be wrong.

As long as you’re consistent, you can’t be wrong.

Unless, of course, you’re putting your apostrophe right on top of the S. That’s just (ahem) fowl.

So let Bojangles come north, thinking it can deep fry its past with a shiny new, punctuation-free logo.

But this is New Jersey: We know where the tar and feathers are, and just when those apostrophes are coming home to roost.

The Grammarian, otherwise known as Jeffrey Barg, looks at how language, grammar, and punctuation shape our world, and appears biweekly. Send comments, questions, and double possessives to jeff@theangrygrammarian.com.