Ar 11:35 -0700 1999-07-19, scríobh Scott Horne:
>A pox on the person who decided to use the apostrophe as a letter
>in Latin script. It has no upper-case form,
It doesn't need one.
>it doesn't feel like a letter,
Plenty of speakers of natural languages disagree with you.
>it cannot be joined to other letters in script
Handwriting?
>and it is
>often disregarded. Its cousin the turned apostrophe (used in
>Hawai`ian, the Wade-Giles romanisation of Chinese, and other writing
>systems) enjoys all these disadvantages and one more: it is easily
>mistaken for the regular apostrophe.
Indeed, this is the bane of our days.
>A double pox on the person who thought it convenient to use the
>apostrophe and the turned apostrophe as distinct and unrelated letters
>in, for example, transcriptions of Arabic.
Well sometimes we gots what we gots. I won't try to lay the blame on who
invented what in my paper, though, in order to preserve their souls from
your vehement a-poxing.
-- Michael Everson * Everson Gunn Teoranta * http://www.indigo.ie/egt 15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire/Ireland Guthán: +353 1 478 2597 ** Facsa: +353 1 478 2597 (by arrangement) 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire
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