Conlang Orthography

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I have begun referring to random meaningless apostrophes in fantasy and sci-fi stories as "prepostrophes."

On another note, maybe the more conscientious spec fic conlangers may want to start representing glottal stops with hyphens instead. I know I connect the sound to hyphens far more readily. Howbout you?

Comments

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't pronounce those hyphenated words differently from their nonhyphenated counterparts, and I would guess most English-speakers do as well. But you're right that in English the apostrophe is more common to effect spelling than the hyphen; however, I think that English-speakers understand that the hyphen is different when used in other languages, and are used to seeing them used as glottal stops in translations, as in the word ren'ai below. The apostrophe there indicates a glottal stop which distinguishes between syllables which have distinct lexical meanings. The problem, I think, is that so many works conlangers overuse them for no apparent reason.

Take the Goa'uld language used in the Stargate series. Almost every word has at least one apostrophe in it, which accurately represents a glottal stop, but all these stops result in speech sounding stilted and unnatural. Whether using hyphens or apostrophes, the result will be the same. But the latter somehow looks more appropriately foreign, I suppose.