alternatives for pronoun-equivalents (pseudonyms) or for certain common words which most conspicuously cut across the Aryan parts of speech. The total number of these is about a hundred, and it should be the business of the beginner to memorize them first. A few, namely uN, aD, noN, nuN, eX, drop the final consonant if the next word begins with one.

(g) Punctuation and Typography

In continuous prose— though not in our short examples cited for illustration— the substantive element of a substantive cluster begins with a capital letter, as in Danish and German print. So does a pronoun subject (e.g. mi = I), or the pronoun object of a verb or prepositional equivalent (e.g. mi = me). A pronoun used in its possessive (e.g. mi = my) sense without de (cf. de mi = my) does not begin with a capital letter. In relation to sentence structure, conventions of punctuation are specially important. The full-stop and inverted commas conform to the usual conventions. The comma marks off items of a catalogue, or participial expressions. The colon introduces a catalogue coming at the end of a sentence, or an introductory vocative expression (see p. 35). The two outstanding idiosyncrasies of Interglossa punctuation are:

(a) The end of every clause, with its own subject-"verb" complex, whether principal, subordinate or co-ordinate, is marked off from a succeeding clause of the same sentence by a semi-colon. In script the semi-colon takes the place of a conjunction equivalent to that at the beginning of a noun clause.

Causo mi volo date prospecto u gene logo de interglossa pro tu; mi pre acte grapho u bibli; plus mi esthe espero; plu pe acte lecto re.
Because I want to show you the way to learn Interglossa, I have written this book, and I hope (that) some people will read it.

(b) The hyphen binds together as units certain compounds made up of independent particles.

International Shorthand

From the time of Dalgarno and Wilkins in the seventeenth century, pioneers of language-planning have paid attention to the need for rapid transcription, and have taken a hand in shorthand projects of one sort or another. This is as it should be. Rapid transcription and economy of space or type are admittedly desiderata of an ideally designed language, though of secondary importance vis-à-vis ease of learning. It is therefore fitting to add a few words on devices which make for economical typography and copying.