English possessive for a name that ends in an apostrophe (in this case, in transliterated Ukrainian)?
I am an editor editing a book review, and I'm not sure how to deal with this:
- Serhii Bilokin’’s book
The author has chosen to transliterate with the apostrophe at the end of the name, but it looks very odd with the English possessive tacked on at the end. I know that the the apostrophe in Ukrainian language/names changes the pronunciation of the surrounding letters, but that's about it, so I'm not sure how integral the apostrophe is to the name. (I've seen it transliterated with and without, so I assume there are multiple right ways, but I'd prefer to respect the author's choices.) I'm having a terrible time trying to find precedents to base my decisions on here. I assume the issue is extra-grammatical. Any insight is appreciated! This type of thing fascinates me, but it's also very confusing.
Solution 1:
I'm Ukrainian, but I can not imagine the double single quotation mark as something acceptable to native English speaker. So, my version is "Angicize", as R Mac called it. It may be as simple as "Serhii Bilokin’s book".
The author's way of transliterating his first name is a little bit of formal. This way is used in official rules of our authorities, something that is not in line with the common everyday practice. I may assume that the same "official" approach has generated the quotation mark at the end. We may suppose it's not a matter of author's deep belief - and Anglicize it. We may err though :)