string.title() doesn't understand apostrophes

[vmole]

BPO	766541
Nosy	@loewis, @rhettinger, @terryjreedy

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2003-07-08.06:59:10.000>
created_at = <Date 2003-07-06.00:17:57.000>
labels = ['library']
title = "string.title() doesn't understand apostrophes"
updated_at = <Date 2003-07-08.06:59:10.000>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/vmole'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2003-07-08.06:59:10.000>
actor = 'loewis'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2003-07-06.00:17:57.000>
creator = 'vmole'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 766541
keywords = []
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['16890', '16891', '16892', '16893', '16894']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'rhettinger', 'terry.reedy', 'vmole']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue766541'
versions = []

[vmole]

Consider the following:

steveg@speedy:~/jbox$ python 
Python 2.2.3 (#1, Jun  4 2003, 02:54:59) 
[GCC 3.3 (Debian)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for
more information.
>>> "I've fallen and i can't get up".title()
"I'Ve Fallen And I Can'T Get Up"
>>> 

That looks fairly non-standard to me. Apparently, the
title()
method treats apostrophes as whitespace/word
seperators/something.

Thanks,
Steve

[loewis]

Logged In: YES
user_id=21627

Unfortunately, this usage of the apostrophe is specific to
the English language. Martin says, 'if the apostrophe is
used for indirect speech, upper-casing after it is correct'.

[terryjreedy]

Logged In: YES
user_id=593130

If the ' directly follows a letter, then it is being used for a
contraction and not for indirect speech, and the following
letter should not be uppercased.

[rhettinger]

Logged In: YES
user_id=80475

The determination of what actually constitutes a word is
language-dependent. For instance, in French, l'arbre is
considered two words. See:
http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr21/tr21-5d3.html

Also, I tried the VB and MS-Excel implementations (they call
it "proper" instead of "title") and they match the current
Python behavior. I found no equivalent string method in
Java.

[loewis]

Logged In: YES
user_id=21627

Thanks, Raymond, for this investigation.

Closing it as wont-fix - if you want an algorithm that
follows the English language rules, you have to implement
that yourself.