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 ## punctuation
   8
   9 ### middle dot (middot)
  10
  11 ::: thread
  12
  13 - I use the middle dot as a “phonological hyphen”—to indicate when
  14     parts of words should be pronounced as if they are distinct
  15     phonological items.
  16   In this sense it takes the place of a dieresis (‹ co·operate › not
  17     not ‹ coöperate ›) and clarifies silent E in compound words
  18     (‹ code·point ›).
  19   It can also be added when not strictly phonologically necessary just
  20     to make very long words easier to scan.
  21
  22   As an exception, I usually don’t use the middle dot with common,
  23     known suffixes like _‐ly_{as=i} (as in ‹ lately ›) to reduce
  24     visual noise.
  25   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  26
  27 - As a (somewhat) distinct usage, I use the middle dot to separate
  28     letters which should be spoken separately (acronyms) as this
  29     avoids the end‐of‐sentence confusion that one gets with periods.
  30   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  31
  32 :::
  33
  34 ### quoting
  35
  36 ::: thread
  37
  38 - I use single quotes (‹ ‘’ ›) as a general quotation mark and double
  39     quotes (‹ “” ›) for scare quotes.
  40   Guillemets (‹ «» ›) are for exact quotations from written sources and
  41     should be separated from their contents by a narrow nonbreaking
  42     space.
  43   “Single” angle quotation marks (‹ ‹› ›) are for quoting exact strings
  44     or sequences of characters irrespective of their meaning.
  45   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  46
  47   - The closing single quote (‹ ’ ›) is also the apostrophe character;
  48       for a while I used a straight quote (‹ ' ›) for apostrophe, but
  49       this isn’t what Unicode recommends and frankly doesn’t look as
  50       nice.
  51     I’d be open to alternative proposals for apostrophe—maybe broken
  52       bar (‹ ¦ ›)?
  53     [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  54
  55 - A narrow nonbreaking space should be placed between adjacent raised
  56     quotes, for example when a spoken quotation begins or ends with an
  57     apostrophe.
  58   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  59
  60 :::
  61
  62 ### dog’s bollocks
  63
  64 ::: thread
  65
  66 - I use a dog’s bollocks (‹ ::wj:— ›) to introduce a list of items.
  67   There is also a reverse variant (‹ —:wj:: ›) for transitioning from a
  68     list to a comment there·about.
  69   In both cases, these replace the ordinary colon by giving it a
  70     directionality.
  71   I always separate the colon side from neighbouring words with a
  72     narrow nonbreaking space, and the emdash side with a full
  73     (breaking) space.
  74   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  75
  76   - Lines should not be broken between the colon and the dash, but
  77       software sometimes does anyway.
  78     This can be prevented by adding a word joiner between the two.
  79     [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  80
  81   - On this _Wiki_{as=cite}, I’ve defined `:8--:` and `:--8:` as
  82       shorthands for the whole “narrow nobreak space, colon, word
  83       joiner, emdash” combo.
  84     [][@:Lady]{.sig}
  85
  86 :::
  87
  88 ### dagger
  89
  90 ::: thread
  91
  92 - I use single (‹ † ›) and double (‹ ‡ ›) dagger as proper name marks,
  93     in contexts where capitalization is not an option or desirable.
  94   The rules are as follows:8--:
  95   If the name consists of only one word, place a single dagger before
  96     it.
  97   If the name consists of multiple words, place a dagger before the
  98     first word and after the last.
  99   If the name consists of multiple parts, use a nested double dagger to
 100     denote the most significant part (e·g a family name).
 101   For example, one might write “Zelda Hyrule” as †zelda ‡hyrule† or
 102     “Mizutani Shizuku” as †‡mizutani shizuku†.
 103   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 104
 105 :::
 106
 107 ### sets
 108
 109 (By “sets”, lists of items such as “a, b & c” is meant.)
 110
 111 ::: thread
 112
 113 - For sets of items, I wrap them in curly braces (‹ \{} ›) whenever
 114     things seem ambiguous.
 115   This obviates the need for a comma before the set operator, which
 116     looks unpleasant.
 117   (I do use a final comma in a non·operator context, such as before the
 118     written word “and”.)
 119   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 120
 121 - In addition to the ampersand (‹ & ›) indicating “all of a set”, I
 122     employ the pipe (‹ ∣ ›) to indicate “some of a set” and the
 123     solidus (‹ ∕ ›) to indicate “one of a set”.
 124   (One might imagine the reverse solidus (‹ ⧵ ›) used to represent
 125     “none of a set”.)
 126   Note that these are the mathematical operators, not the vertical bar
 127     (‹ | ›), slash (‹ / ›), and backslash (‹ \ ›) from Ascii (the
 128     ampersand is the same).
 129   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 130
 131   - Typically I only use these in set of two items, because I don’t
 132       expect people to know how to read “you may have a, b ∕ c” (but
 133       “you may have b ∕ c” is clearer).
 134     [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 135
 136   - Many fonts are bad at rendering the mathematical solidus, perhaps
 137       confusing it with the fraction slash.
 138     [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 139
 140 :::
 141
 142 ### per sign
 143
 144 ::: thread
 145
 146 - I use the per sign (‹ ⅌ ›) in place of the word _per_{as=i},
 147     including in attributing thoughts (“cats are good, ⅌ æscling”).
 148   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 149
 150 :::
 151
 152 ## spelling
 153
 154 ### tironian et
 155
 156 ::: thread
 157
 158 - I use tironian et (‹ ⹒⁊ ›) to replace the _et_{as=i} in phrases such
 159     as _et cetera_{as=i} (abbreviated ‹ ⁊·c ›) as well as as a
 160     generalpurpose “and” sign.
 161   [][@:Lady]{.sig}
 162
 163 :::