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Names with apostrophes

Mectojic

Minstrel
Many 'evil' or otherwise characters in many fantasies have apostrophes in the middle of their name.

I want to call a particular group of people the No'arsh. Is is more correct to say No'Arsh?
The reason I call them this is for 2 reasons - the apostrophe is very rarely used elsewhere, so the audience can easily remember the place, and for pronounciation. It is clear to pronounce No'arsh, separating the vowels when saying it, then going for something like Noaarsh, IMO.

Is there even a correct way? How do you do it?
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I think it is really up to you and what you want. Is the No part like De or Mc or Von that you might find in European names?
"No'arsh" looks odd to me. If there is a pause in the name then I would capitalise both parts.
For an Anglo-Irish PoV "No'Arsh" looks right ["O'Neil", "O'Conner" etc.] but almost anything can work.
Then there is the whole world of Mc and Mac... I know people called "McDonald", "Mcdonald" and "MacDonald" and I work with someone [Italian or Swiss - I've never asked] called "de Luca" and I know a "De'arth".
Personally I'd probably use "No-Arsh" or "No Arsh"... as I'm not a fan of apostrophes in names.
 
Hi,

Like the others I say it's up to you. The one thing you have to do is be consistent through the work. For me I do quite like apostrophe's in names - espeially non-human names - as it adds a note of someone being not completely the same as the rest of us Tom, Dick and Harry's.

Cheers, Greg.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I agree, it's up to you. Personally, I favor using apostrophes sparingly. For me, if it's hard to pronounce, it's hard to remember. As for the name you provided. When I pronounce No'Arsh, I can't help but hear "No Arse". Not trying to make fun. Just pointing out a potential issue.
 
W French there's also the famed "D'artagnon" and I believe Joan of Arc's name is more appropriately "Jeanne D'arc".

I've seen it used a variety of ways but to me it makes more sense (in the real world) having only the first letter be capitalized. The apostrophe suggests that it is a contraction. My French is rusty at best but in the cases above (I believe) it is used as a way to avoid the confusion of using a double vowel (De Artagnon and De Arc). For Joan, "De Arc" is used as a surname so only the first letter is capitalized- the phrase itself becomes the title. Here, in order to separate the vowels you remove the first and it's implied.


The suggestion of No-arsh makes sense. But I think using an apostrophe after the word "no" makes it read in a way you probably did not intend. A South American friend of mine used to laugh at "Novas" (the cars) because No - Vas (You won't be able to go anywhere / it won't work for you). I think seeing "No" be separated from "arsh" makes it read similarly - the brain picks it up as No____ rather than as a single word(for him apparently No Arse though I personally read it as "no rash").

To me it would make the most sense as N'arsh[Na-arsh], Nörsh [New-rsh], Närsh [Nay-ersh], or Noársh [Noh-Arsh] which I think reads the closest to what you are looking for. There's probably a better way to break them down phonetically but this should be close to real world pronunciations.

What you use might depend on some of the other linguistic customs you're using in your world.
 

Mectojic

Minstrel
To me it would make the most sense as N'arsh[Na-arsh], Nörsh [New-rsh], Närsh [Nay-ersh], or Noársh [Noh-Arsh] which I think reads the closest to what you are looking for.

Yes this is perfect. I had played around with some different ways to do it... and you're right. Noársh is the best way to do it. No connotations to the word 'No', or anything else. Great.

Just for fun: The Noárshi is a race that lives in icy mountains, and build totems and wards to keep themselves warm, and honour their gods. In antiquity, the Silver King rallied them together to conquer the lands of Breer. This resulted in the exile of the main court, and the Quan of Breer conquered all of Noársh.
 
Also for fun ... if you need help fleshing out their totemic religion, Emile Durkheim's "Elements of Religion" places a decent emphasis on it & how they function (supposedly). The theory is a bit outdated and I wouldn't recommend applying it to all of your fiction but you might find it helpful for this project. Kudos for originality. I'd love to see more totemic religions in fiction :)

Sounds like an interesting premise. It's not allegorical for Tatar / Russian relations is it?
 
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