[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: luS

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Thu May 23 17:53:18 PDT 2019


On 5/23/2019 5:25 PM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
> On 5/23/2019 12:13 PM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
>>> You have weird apostrophes there. I suggest simple ' or fancy ’, but
>>> never ‘.
>
> Am 23.05.2019 um 19:56 schrieb SuStel:
>> I can't help myself:
>>
>> What difference does it make?
>
> Graphic designers prefer to use a
> so-called typographic apostrophe, which looks identical to the right
> single quotation mark  (and also uses the same symbol), i.e. it
> resembles a small nine. This has been used in TKD, KGT, TKW, and many
> other sources - including Okrand who uses it in his mails. It can be
> written on windows computers by holding down the Alt-key + 0146, HTML
> uses the code #8217.
>
> The apostrophe is the RIGHT single quotation mark, but not the left one.
> It doesn't only look very ugly when you read a text like {QI‘tu’ ‘och
> vI’el‘a’} where the quotes jump back and forth, but it's also just the
> wrong symbol.
>
> That's the difference it makes.

Okay, so just to be clear, your reasons are:

1) Okrand has used a right single quotation mark (U+2019), and

2) You feel the right single quotation mark is the most aesthetically 
pleasing.

I don't see how this leaves the apostrophe (U+0027) an acceptable 
character to use. Typographers certainly don't like to use it for 
aesthetic reasons, and Okrand doesn't make any particular use of it. Why 
recommend it, then? Not all software will equate the two characters in 
searches.

Is there an acceptable typeface for Klingon? A recommended line spacing? 
Do bullets have to be triangles? How far down the typography hole do we 
go? I'm more careful with my typography than anyone else on this list — 
who else bothers to use real em dashes, for instance? — but even I don't 
go out of my way to produce typographically pleasing quotation marks or 
apostrophes in email. I don't see how it can be an argument for anything 
except one's subjective aesthetic tastes. Even then, it can't be all 
that strong an argument, given the lack of any other particular 
typographic care on the list.

To be clear: I agree that right single quotation marks are the most 
aesthetically please choice for the *qaghwI'.* I just don't see any 
reason to claim that left single quotation marks, or even apostrophes, 
are "just the wrong symbol."

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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