> If that is so, it's odd that everybody _writes_ <Peter's> with a
> detached clitic. Germans don't do that, afaIk (or do they? Anybody?).
>
> Torsten
According to the rule adopted 103 years ago (the official, i.e.
"amtliche Festlegung der Rechtschreibung" during Kaiser Wilhelm II's
reign): <Peters Laden, Peters Stube(n), Peters Bäckerei, Peters
Gaststätte, Peters KFZ-Werkstatt>.
However, most native-speakers will always prefer writing <Peter's
Laden> (giving... something on the Duden rule :=)). As one can see in
most localities all over Germany, Austria (and I expect this for South
Tirol, Liechtenstein, Schwitzer Düütsch areas as well as in
Lotharingia, Alsatia & Letzelburg, too).
Much the more today, when such "German" words like these are so much in
use: <sale! deal! dealer! price! discount! stylist! cash & carry! city!
downtown! handy! (this one is the German invention for "cell phone")>
and myriads more. :-)
(A similar pig-headedness here: most people tend to write <in's für's,
über's> &c., despite the fact that the rule has allowed & recommended
<ins, fürs, übers> for more than a century now.)
George