[tlhIngan Hol] comma between nouns joined by je

[mayqel qunen'oS]

loghaD:
> As a matter of taste, I tend to avoid using commas unless
> necessary for clarity, because they have a very "English:y" feel to them

In-game thinking dictates that we believe, that the way klingon is to
be written is unknown.. And this is reasonable, since it'd be rather
ridiculous to admit that in its' homeworld, an alien language is
normally written in the characters of a terran one. It'd be equivalent
to saying that ancient egyptian is to be written in old norse runes..

However, the problem remains that we *need* to punctuate, since a
passage lacking adequate punctuation resembles a road lacking surface
markings; One *could* drive in such a road, but depending on the road,
the lack of surface markings could be anywhere between insignificant
to fatal. Of course, noone died because he read an inadequately
punctuated text, but you get my point..

And there's another angle to this matter..

Would you take seriously a country which uses different surface
markings on each one of its' highways, depending on how the contractor
who created them, happened to be *feeling* the day each road was being
constructed ?

The same goes for klingon texts..

A klingon text has to follow consistent punctuation rules throughout.
If it doesn't, then one thing it shows for sure, is that the author
isn't serious about his work.

Of course now, someone will ask, "and what do these punctuation rules
need to be ?"

I don't know. This is something for each one to decide. But
personally, I'd take into *very* serious consideration fse punctuation
rules (i.e the ones which can apply in klingon), since these rules
have been developed over decades if not centuries, and I wouldn't
expect anyone of us to be able to think of anything better.

But regardless how someone will decide, the need remains that in order
to be taken seriously, he needs to be consistent in his punctuation
throughout. It would be ridiculous to read a text, where some adverbs
are followed by a comma, and some aren't. Or to see a text where some
dependent clauses at the beginning of the sentence are followed by a
comma and some aren't.

Every fse writing style guide I've read, says with regards to
punctuation which even in fse there's no set rule, "pick a style and
stick with it", and I believe one should act similarly in klingon.

At least it shows to the reader, that the author had the decency to
sit his ass on a chair, think the matter of punctuation seriously, and
reach to some decisions. And this would be preferable than throwing
commas, semicolons, parentheses, etc, in random.

~ mayqel qunen'oS