I don’t get this sign. Can you help?
If the picture isn’t clear, it reads: UNIVERSITY OF SOU’HERN CALIFORNIA
What is the purpose of the apostrophe?
Thank you.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
That sign is from the USC Health Sciences campus located a few blocks from the university. The photo appears to be a bit altered, as the sign itself is in reality concave – but the picture shows it as somewhat convex. So it was either edited or processed incorrectly. The “apostrophe” you see is just part of the T that got edited out of the photo when the image was altered.
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An apostrophe can just mean to fill in for any missing letters. In this case, “T”. So either it’s supposed to accentuate some peculiar inflection (like they used to do on Subway menus, where you could ask for “all the fixin’s”) or they just didn’t make a big enough sign.
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All I can say is it must be an apostro tee.
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It’s an obviously digitally altered image (poorly done) to remove the “T” from “Southern” then stitch the image back together. What you perceive as an apostrophe, is actually the left hand serif of the “T” that was not removed from the image. The altered image likely has some meaning to the person who created it; what that could be I have no idea. Where did the photo come from?
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Thanks to all for the explanation about it being digitally altered.
The photo came from an article in the Chicago Tribune.
I love the humor expressed by one reader that the pronunciation really was meant to be: “Sou-ern.”
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