English orthography and various improvements or changes which might
be made there·with.
-## middle dot (middot)
+## punctuation
+
+### middle dot (middot)
::: thread
[][@:Lady]{.sig}
:::
+
+### quoting
+
+::: thread
+
+- I use single quotes (‹ ‘’ ›) as a general quotation mark and double
+ quotes (‹ “” ›) for scare quotes.
+ Guillemets (‹ «» ›) are for exact quotations from written sources and
+ should be separated from their contents by a narrow nonbreaking
+ space.
+ “Single” angle quotation marks (‹ ‹› ›) are for quoting exact strings
+ or sequences of characters irrespective of their meaning.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+ - The closing single quote (‹ ’ ›) is also the apostrophe character;
+ for a while I used a straight quote (‹ ' ›) for apostrophe, but
+ this isn’t what Unicode recommends and frankly doesn’t look as
+ nice.
+ I’d be open to alternative proposals for apostrophe—maybe broken
+ bar (‹ ¦ ›)?
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+- A narrow nonbreaking space should be placed between adjacent raised
+ quotes, for example when a spoken quotation begins or ends with an
+ apostrophe.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
+
+### dog’s bollocks
+
+::: thread
+
+- I use a dog’s bollocks (‹ ::wj:— ›) to introduce a list of items.
+ There is also a reverse variant (‹ —:wj:: ›) for transitioning from a
+ list to a comment there·about.
+ In both cases, these replace the ordinary colon by giving it a
+ directionality.
+ I always separate the colon side from neighbouring words with a
+ narrow nonbreaking space, and the emdash side with a full
+ (breaking) space.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+ - Lines should not be broken between the colon and the dash, but
+ software sometimes does anyway.
+ This can be prevented by adding a word joiner between the two.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+ - On this _Wiki_{as=cite}, I’ve defined `:8--:` and `:--8:` as
+ shorthands for the whole “narrow nobreak space, colon, word
+ joiner, emdash” combo.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
+
+### dagger
+
+::: thread
+
+- I use single (‹ † ›) and double (‹ ‡ ›) dagger as proper name marks,
+ in contexts where capitalization is not an option or desirable.
+ The rules are as follows:8--:
+ If the name consists of only one word, place a single dagger before
+ it.
+ If the name consists of multiple words, place a dagger before the
+ first word and after the last.
+ If the name consists of multiple parts, use a nested double dagger to
+ denote the most significant part (e·g a family name).
+ For example, one might write “Zelda Hyrule” as †zelda ‡hyrule† or
+ “Mizutani Shizuku” as †‡mizutani shizuku†.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
+
+### sets
+
+(By “sets”, lists of items such as “a, b & c” is meant.)
+
+::: thread
+
+- For sets of items, I wrap them in curly braces (‹ \{} ›) whenever
+ things seem ambiguous.
+ This obviates the need for a comma before the set operator, which
+ looks unpleasant.
+ (I do use a final comma in a non·operator context, such as before the
+ written word “and”.)
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+- In addition to the ampersand (‹ & ›) indicating “all of a set”, I
+ employ the pipe (‹ ∣ ›) to indicate “some of a set” and the
+ solidus (‹ ∕ ›) to indicate “one of a set”.
+ (One might imagine the reverse solidus (‹ ⧵ ›) used to represent
+ “none of a set”.)
+ Note that these are the mathematical operators, not the vertical bar
+ (‹ | ›), slash (‹ / ›), and backslash (‹ \ ›) from Ascii (the
+ ampersand is the same).
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+ - Typically I only use these in set of two items, because I don’t
+ expect people to know how to read “you may have a, b ∕ c” (but
+ “you may have b ∕ c” is clearer).
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+ - Many fonts are bad at rendering the mathematical solidus, perhaps
+ confusing it with the fraction slash.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
+
+### per sign
+
+::: thread
+
+- I use the per sign (‹ ⅌ ›) in place of the word _per_{as=i},
+ including in attributing thoughts (“cats are good, ⅌ æscling”).
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
+
+## spelling
+
+### tironian et
+
+::: thread
+
+- I use tironian et (‹ ⹒⁊ ›) to replace the _et_{as=i} in phrases such
+ as _et cetera_{as=i} (abbreviated ‹ ⁊·c ›) as well as as a
+ generalpurpose “and” sign.
+ [][@:Lady]{.sig}
+
+:::
Lady’s Gitweb / Wiki / blobdiff