> From:    Danny Wier <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Punctuation conventions
>
> I noticed in my posts that I use parentheses, brackets, asterisks and
such.
> So I might as well ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What is the proper use of (parentheses), [brackets] and {braces} in
> English and other languages?  I've seen several types of enclosures in CJK
> fonts as well, three or four-odd types of square brackets.  And I might as
> well throw in ~`!@#$%^&*()_-+=|\{[}]:;"'<,>.?/ (no, I'm not swearing ;)

In English, parentheses mark off (well...) parenthetical comments.  Brackets
"mark off text that's [been] added for readability in quotes".  Braces
aren't used much (although they're used in IRC for {{{{{hugs}}}}} based on
the pun in braces -> embraces).

! is used for exclamations.  (I understand in German it's also used for
commands, and maybe salutations of letters?)   (Also, Spanish has "opening"
and "closing" exclamation and question marks, ¡where exclaimed clauses are
marked off like this!)

# is the number sign, that also used to be used for pounds (the weight kind)
and you might still hear of the 'pound' key on a telephone.

& is the ampersand, which also used to be an et-as-and ligature (in old
books you will find "&c." instead of "etc.")

"" double quote is used to mark quotes, and '' single quoteis used to mark
quotes inside quotes. (or in programming languages, double quotes delimit
strings and single quotes chars.)  (Which languages use the weird quotes?)

' apostrophe is for contractions and the genitive... In many languages, ' is
a glottal stop, and because of this (?) English-invented (and others?)
"alien" names and languages (of the kind you might find in comic books) use
them to make names _look_ alien.

, comma is used to mark off a pause in speaking, like this, and has some use
in marking off lists, compound phrases, and the like.  Semicolon is often
used in lists when the listed things have commas...  In German the comma is
also used to mark off relative clauses and complete clauses.  (I think, it
looks kind of odd in English.)
/ slash means a choice; either/or, and/or, he/she.

... ellipsis indicates ommitted text, and in conversational writing
indicates the voice trailing off.

- hyphen is used in self-conscious compound words, like 'veg-o-matic'.  It's
also used to separate affixes from words that could be misread (reserve vs.
re-serve) or mispronounced (co-operate vs. coöperate) (note the
old-fashioned use of the dieresis to indicate "pronounce this vowel"--which
survives today only in a few words, like "naïve").

-- dash is a double hyphen and means text is being
interrupted--parenthetically or not.  Some languages [I've seen it in
Spanish] use the dash in dialogue to introduce a change of speaker.

. Period marks abbreviations and the end of sentences.  [In lojban, it's a
phoneme, isn't it?]

Oh!  There's supposed to be a kind of "count" scheme onnit too.  For example
a comma, count one beat before proceeding, for a colon, two, for a
semicolon, three; for a period, four.  I'm not sure about those middle two.

I'm afraid that's not as much on "other languages" as I'd have liked it to
be... maybe it will help those who aren't familiar with English.

> 2) Any unusual conlang-related punctuation marks?  Or exotic natlang
> conventions?  (Armenian has some curious little marks, for instance, like
> their curly question mark-thing.  And Ethiopic marks paragraphs with seven
> dots arranged in a neat little circle.  And we probably all know about the
> use of ; as a question mark in Greek...)

Amazingly, I had never thought much at all about my languages' punctuation
till recently.  Of course, my last conlang could get away with "european"
marks, but this new one really needs them, and I have to find stuff that
'fits' with it.  I've only needed one so far; the colon : as a space.  For
some reason none of my conlangs have grasped the concept of a _blank_
space...Even my own personal script has a rota-square=diamond as space,
though I rarely use it.

Actually, my personal script has different shapes for apostrophe [it's like
a carat] and quote [it's like I think are used in Japanese--the kind of
corner-square?] and both dash and hyphen get the same mark.  And there's
really only one kind of bracket in use.. the angle ones < >.

> From:    Jonathan Chang <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions
>
> In a message dated 2000/06/04 01:14:39 AM, DaW wrote:
>
> >Any unusual conlang-related punctuation marks?
>
>     I am thinkin of usin ::  to mark onomatopoeiac voice in my pidgin
conlang
> Lingwa Frakas. =)
>     i.e.    Kittee sono blong ::goro-goro::
>         <<Cat sound(s) is/are ::purr-purr::>>

Hey, that's cute!

> From:    nicole perrin <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions
>
> Well, one of Christophe's langs, Chasma'ocho (or something to that
> effect, there's diacritics in there somewhere but I'm not sure where),
> which was made purposely to have a weird orthography, uses some very
> convential punctuation marks in some very unconventional ways, IIRC.
> Further explanations of this, Christophe?

I think it's "Chasmäöcho", but there might be more umlautsigned vowels...


     *Muke!