Esperanto ϗ Greka
I'm reading something just now about Esperanto orthography and I found something interesting:
Very occasionally characters in a novel will be distinguished by individualizing the quotation marks used for them.
This is in regards to the variation in quotation marks used in Esperanto, usually following local standards. We use raised comma-like “quotes” in English (either single or double depending on the level and dialect), but other languages have different „arrangements“, or different kinds of quotes like «guillemets», pointing one way or the »other«.
Since I'm thinking of translating some of my writing into Esperanto, this is rather interesting to me. Each character could have a different system of quotation, which would make them more easily identifiable in conversations. I typically use written tags for this in English, so I've never thought much of doing it this way. It remidns me, though, of the common practice in manga of using a different font or lettering style for each character. Most will have a typical gothic typeface, but that ancient samurai spirit who comes back to avenge his master's death may have a decorative kaisho font.
But back to Esperanto for a moment. I've long known that the word kaj for "and" came from the Greek word καί. They aren't pronounced the same way (they are [kai] and [kei] respectively), but that's not really important. I found earlier today that the Greek word can be abbreviated with a symbol that you may not be able to see here: ϗ If you can't, the link has a picture. So, I wondered if I could get away with using that in Esperanto. It does, after all, look like a short k with a tail that resembles a j, so I'm certain it would be understood in context. And there's more good news for this:
The abbreviation k is used without a period for kaj (and); the ampersand (&) is not found.
So this probably wouldn't seem too unusual, but maybe a little distractive at first. On the same note, though, I have seen the ampersand used occasionally in Esperanto, probably from English influence.
Very occasionally characters in a novel will be distinguished by individualizing the quotation marks used for them.
This is in regards to the variation in quotation marks used in Esperanto, usually following local standards. We use raised comma-like “quotes” in English (either single or double depending on the level and dialect), but other languages have different „arrangements“, or different kinds of quotes like «guillemets», pointing one way or the »other«.
Since I'm thinking of translating some of my writing into Esperanto, this is rather interesting to me. Each character could have a different system of quotation, which would make them more easily identifiable in conversations. I typically use written tags for this in English, so I've never thought much of doing it this way. It remidns me, though, of the common practice in manga of using a different font or lettering style for each character. Most will have a typical gothic typeface, but that ancient samurai spirit who comes back to avenge his master's death may have a decorative kaisho font.
But back to Esperanto for a moment. I've long known that the word kaj for "and" came from the Greek word καί. They aren't pronounced the same way (they are [kai] and [kei] respectively), but that's not really important. I found earlier today that the Greek word can be abbreviated with a symbol that you may not be able to see here: ϗ If you can't, the link has a picture. So, I wondered if I could get away with using that in Esperanto. It does, after all, look like a short k with a tail that resembles a j, so I'm certain it would be understood in context. And there's more good news for this:
The abbreviation k is used without a period for kaj (and); the ampersand (&) is not found.
So this probably wouldn't seem too unusual, but maybe a little distractive at first. On the same note, though, I have seen the ampersand used occasionally in Esperanto, probably from English influence.