Lady’s Gitweb - Wiki/blob - Sources/Page/EnglishOrthography.djot

   1 # ideas for improving English orthography
   2
   3 This page lists various ideas editors of this wiki have had regarding
   4   English orthography and various improvements or changes which might
   5   be made there·with.
   6
   7 ## middle dot (middot)
   8
   9 ::: thread
  10
  11 - I use the middle dot as a “phonological hyphen”—to indicate when
  12     parts of words should be pronounced as if they are distinct
  13     phonological items.
  14   In this sense it takes the place of a dieresis (‹ co·operate › not
  15     not ‹ coöperate ›) and clarifies silent E in compound words
  16     (‹ code·point ›).
  17   It can also be added when not strictly phonologically necessary just
  18     to make very long words easier to scan.
  19
  20   As an exception, I usually don’t use the middle dot with common,
  21     known suffixes like _‐ly_{as=i} (as in ‹ lately ›) to reduce
  22     visual noise.
  23   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  24
  25 - As a (somewhat) distinct usage, I use the middle dot to separate
  26     letters which should be spoken separately (acronyms) as this
  27     avoids the end‐of‐sentence confusion that one gets with periods.
  28   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  29
  30 :::