[tlhIngan Hol] Quvar, QISmaS cake Davutta''a'

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Sat Dec 31 08:53:02 PST 2016


On 12/31/2016 11:21 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
> however, there is a major difference between the {-'a'} and 
> punctuation in general.
>
> if you are reading a sentence which contains a verb bearing the 
> {-'a'}, or a sentence starting with any question word, there is no way 
> you can't realize instantly that it is a question.
>
> but if you are trying to read a passage with no commas and periods, 
> then good luck, especially in klingon.
>
> one of the reasons I refuse to read paq'batlh is exactly this lack of 
> punctuation. the problem isn't the lack of question marks; its having 
> to be a psychic in order to understand where everything starts and stops.
>
> whenever voragh quotes the paq'batlh, and I am trying to read just a 
> few sentences, I feel like smashing my phone against the wall.
>
> I can't help but hear myself saying "how the f*** am I supposed to 
> understand this" ?

"There is a major difference"
"Is there a major difference"

In English, there is a major difference between the same sentence in 
indicative and interrogative moods, as I have just illustrated. You can 
tell which is a statement and which is a question. So why do we have the 
question mark? Why do some languages use the question mark twice, once 
at the beginning and once at the end?

So basically, we're asking why you won't follow the conventions of 
punctuation that society has agreed upon for a long time. I find your 
English-language text more difficult to read than someone else's, 
because you don't capitalize so it's hard to find the beginnings of 
sentences; you put spaces before your end-of-sentence punctuation which 
makes it hard to find the ends of sentences; you don't use apostrophes 
consistently so it's hard to tell the difference between /its/ and /it's.
/

I've seen worse on the Internet:

I once knew someone
who put line breaks
throughout his words
like this
because
he thought
it made things easier
to read.
Everyone yelled at him
and told him
it was actually harder to read
written this way.
He didn't believe them
and kept on doing it
because he was convinced
his way was better
than what they had learned.
Whether or not
it was better
nobody else
could read it easily
because they hadn't been taught
to read
like this.

OR WHY DON'T WE STICK TO ONE TYPEFACE? WHY DO WE MIX MAJUSCULES AND 
MINUSCULES WHEN ONE SIZE OF LETTERS WILL DO? it's because over the 
centuries we have found minuscule lettering is easier to read in large 
blocks, but majuscule lettering works better for emphasis, and 
emphasizing certain words in sentences by capitalizing them.

I don't know the reason they chose to present /paq'batlh/ without 
punctuation. It probably has something to do with trying to recreate a 
spoken song rather than a prose text; you don't usually speak 
punctuation unless you're Victor Borge.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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