Perils of the typeface
I have recently been writing some dialogue in the East Midlands vernacular.
Natives of this part of England don't generally recognise the initial letter 'h'.
So, for example, the expression help him would be pronounced 'elp 'im.
I prefer to write in Times New Roman, which is a serif typeface. (It is believed to be easier to read.)
Times New Roman has two versions of the apostrophe: one with its tail curling to the right (open quote) and one curling to the left (close quote).
Trouble is, when I write 'elp 'im. I want the ones curling to the left - but Word makes me have the ones curling right! It's a heck of a job trying to fool the programme!
Of course, you will have noticed that THIS blog typeface has only one kind of apostrophe - it curls neither way.
Now that is a practical solution.
Natives of this part of England don't generally recognise the initial letter 'h'.
So, for example, the expression help him would be pronounced 'elp 'im.
I prefer to write in Times New Roman, which is a serif typeface. (It is believed to be easier to read.)
Times New Roman has two versions of the apostrophe: one with its tail curling to the right (open quote) and one curling to the left (close quote).
Trouble is, when I write 'elp 'im. I want the ones curling to the left - but Word makes me have the ones curling right! It's a heck of a job trying to fool the programme!
Of course, you will have noticed that THIS blog typeface has only one kind of apostrophe - it curls neither way.
Now that is a practical solution.
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[deleted user]
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Jun 26, 2014 01:14AM
You may need to add a British dictionary at the end of the book. Those of us across the pond unaccustomed to the vernacular are a little thick. English isn't always English over here. Don't get me started on Scots.
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Yes - this is where Kindle can help - isn't it great that you can press on a strange word and find out what it means?Maybe soon we'll be able to personalise this function to an individual book so the author can create a dictionary/glossary as you suggest.
One of the problems I have is I forget who characters are - it would be ideal to be able to get a little reminder without leafing back.
