[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: luS

[Lieven L. Litaer]

Am 24.05.2019 um 16:58 schrieb SuStel:
> You gave two arguments against the left single quotation mark U+2019:
> it's aesthetically unpleasing, and Okrand doesn't use it.
>
> Those arguments are also true about the apostrophe U+0027: no
> typographer worth their salt would recommend its use for aesthetic
> reasons, and Okrand doesn't use it.
>
> So while you SAY use of the apostrophe is fine, the reasons you give for
> not using the left single quotation mark also apply against the apostrophe.

Then maybe my arguments were not complete and you have overinterpreted
them. Okrand has definitely used the simple apostrophe. And now, to
remain very strict nitpicking: the apostrophe is named apostreophe in
TKD, so this should lead to the situation that every kind of symbol that
representes an apostrophe IS acceptable as an apostrophe. The simple '
apostrophe IS an apostrophe, so it actually even does not matter whether
okrand has used it or not. Nevertheless, he HAS used it, so need to
argue here.

Let's set it straight again for clarity:

Okrand has used the simple '
Okrand has used the curly ’

simple ' is defined as apostrophe
curly ’ is defined as apostrophe

left ‘ is NOT defined as apostrophe
left ‘ has NOT been used by Okrand

This row still filters out left ‘.

> It's about the correct symbol to use to represent the Klingon glottal
> stop. And I maintain that it is not actually necessary to exclude the
> left single quotation mark from that role. I don't choose it for myself,
> but my preference is individual to me. I'm not proclaiming it to be wrong.

As you wish. It's my preference to write a zero for an O and.

> Okrand was NOT referencing the Unicode standard when he wrote TKD.

Surely not, but he said that it's an apostrophe. left single quote is
not an apostrophe. Why don't you want to accept that?

> Your little character stunt in your email shows how well we humans can
> ignore encoding issues so long as the typeface is familiar. It doesn't
> matter whether you type an /l/ or a /ɭ,/ I can understand you just fine.
> Thank you for demonstrating my point for me.

You're welcome. It was my intention that you may find it annoying, but
obviously you don't. You probably just don't want to admit.

> I notice you used a hyphen-minus character after your /Ah./ As a marker
> of an interruption, the correct character to use, according to most
> style guides, is an em dash: —. I see you also used three periods to

Since when do you care about style guides?

> indicate a pause. Why didn't you use the Unicode ellipsis character, …?

Because I was using the easiest accessable letters available from my
keyboard. These include dots, minus-hyphens and also an apostrophe. If I
decide to make a fancy apostrophe, I choose the one that is defined as
apostrophe, hitting Alt+0146. I don't choose anything else that just
looks like one only because I think it's nice.


--
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.de
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/StarTrekDiscovery