Muai - Punctuation
It's shown in the section Organizers
that most punctuation marks can be replaced by actual words in Muai.
They are like the Chinese word ma that is a kind of spoken
"question mark". That is, punctuation marks are actually spoken in
Muai. However, the traditional punctuation marks can (and should, in
some cases) be used in Muai in order to enhance the function of
those words (the organizers). For instance, the word luei
always refer to something that appeared before in the text (the last
subject), while huei always refer to something that will
follow (the next sentence). So, we can write luei as :luei
and huei as huei: (note the colons after or before
the pronoun).
Punctuation can also help the reader with rhythm and intonation.
It's probable that you read the following lines in different ways:
They like oranges and bananas.
They like oranges, and bananas.
They like oranges. And bananas.
They. Like. Oranges... And bananas...
As an innovation, Muai has the option of starting a sentence or a
paragraph with a period, just like we usually finish them. If the
period is at the beggining of the word, that word starts a sentence;
if the period is at the end of the word, it finishes the sentence.
.kioi mieko tiei.
I love you.
That's the same as beggining with a capital letter:
Kioi mieko tiei.
Or even both the period and the capital letter:
.Kioi mieko tiei.
But I still prefer
.kioi mieko tiei.
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