Missing hyphens

My family surname has been hyphenated for many generations, long before it became popular to do so.

Nowadays, I find I get annoyed when I have to spell my name to the younger generation and they look at me blankly as they don't know what a 'hyphen' is. I've had
/ > ! inserted between the two names as until I've said 'dash' they have no knowledge of what I meant.

I even had one bright young thing write my surname with the full word hyphen included...well that is what she meant to put but sadly she didn't manage to spell the word correctly and wrote hiphan !

I hadn't realised this is happening! Still love the hyphen & use it often.

As a proofreader - there's a nightmare in itself! - there are very strict rules about what is and is not hyphenated this week! I agree, but hadn't considered the cattle handler - will never ever look at my fellow administrators/colleagues in the same way again!

Language evolves all the time... if you don't believe me... try listening to or reading Canterbury Tales in the vernacular. You will not understand 1 word in 3. Our language is changing all the time mostly I think for the better ...and our spelling could do with some clarification.

I always use hyphens, but I notice that my children don't particularly when texting or emailing. Neither do they use punctuation or speech marks. The speed of electronic communication is making us lazy!!

I'm with you, BlueBelle in that I hadn't noticed their demise. I certainly regularly use them and confess to often having to pause to say 'now, is that hyphenated or not?' Daresay I sometimes get it wrong!

I have not noticed them going perhaps I m unobservsnt
I still use them

I will continue to use them..they make sense

Hear Hear! And at last a new subject in Pedants' Corner.

MaizieD, it took a while for me to realise what coworkers were the first time I read it. But I still think of them as 'cowboys/girls' whenever I see it written. So it's not just you.

I think the change has come because we type rather than write and hyphens on a keyboard require more finger work than they do when you are writing by hand. We are short-cutting.

Good example Absent.

Fund raising has become a constant task for village churches throughout the country. The school is holding a fund-raising cake sale on Friday.

I use them frequently. Can I clarify. Should I hyphenate fund-raising, or is it 2 seperate words? Or even 1. It's a word/phrase I write often.

They still seem to be there in the books and news articles I read