To ital or not to ital

[rolanni]

Yeah, I know; I said I was going to be scarce. Here's a question, though.

As previously noted, I'm proofreading the galleys for The Dragon Variation (currently not available for pre-order from Amazon.com, because Amazon.com apparently has idiots driving its database. Yes, I'm bitter.). TDV includes three novels, two of which -- Local Custom and Scout's Progress -- take place on Liad. The characters of these two novels speak Liaden pretty much throughout the whole of the action, and the decision was thus made at Meisha Merlin that none of the Liaden words would be italicized.

Come the new house and the new style. A lot of what I've been doing is underlining Liaden words to be ital'd in the final book. I've made some Rules: cantra -- no ital, because c'mon, do we ital "rouble" in RL? Delm, a'thodelm, thodelm, nadelm -- no itals. Misravot -- itals.

Now I come to -- binjali.

My heart says -- no itals. Certainly, Binjali Repair Shop is not ital'd. I'm not even sure Liadens have italics -- save them a lot of grief, if they don't.

What do you think?

Yes, I really want to know.

Comments

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

I would vote no italics on "binjali" - it's a slang word. Yes, it's Liaden slang, but would it be italicized if it were English slang?

[baobrien.livejournal.com]

And who knows, if enough people read these books, someday maybe it will get picked up by the English language -