[tlhIngan Hol] qaghwI' vs. qaghwI’

[Steven Boozer]

Appearances aside... if you're compiling lists make sure that whatever symbol you use is actually searchable.  Some word processors and databases ignore the little curved alephs and 'ayins (Lieven's "flying commas").  You want to be able to distinguish {mu'ghom} from {mughom}, {Qo'noS} from {QonoS}, etc.  Trust me!

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

-----Original Message-----
From: kechpaja

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 09:58:01AM -0400, SuStel wrote:
> On 10/26/2017 9:52 AM, Lieven wrote:
> > I am always telling people that when they want to write and print 
> > something in Klingon, they should use the typographical apostrophe 
> > that looks like a small "9", or like a flying comma.
> >
> > This has been used like this on Okrand's 3 books, but otherwise I 
> > started to wonder... why?
> >
> > Is there any reason or source or whatever that says that {’orwI’} is 
> > better than {'orwI'}? Does this {'} mean anything else than {’}? Or 
> > is this just for the look?
> 
> I've never understood why people say that, unless it's just a rigid 
> adherence to the style guide that produced TKD. Personally, I'd rather 
> see straight quotes, to distinguish them from actual quotation marks.

I think it's important that we not worry about the distinction, as long as the resulting text is legible. I would not be surprised to find that many people aren't even aware that those are separate characters, and getting the right one into your text will be a pain if i.e. the editor autocorrects one to the other. And even if we used one for the glottal stop and the other for the single quote, they would still be easy enough to confuse that it would be wise to avoid single quotes. 

 - SapIr