"Nowing ones complane of my book the fust edition had no stops I put in a Nuf here and thay may peper and solt it as they plese"
— "Lord" Timothy Dexter, adding a page of punctuation to the second edition of A Pickle for the Knowing Ones.
"I'm guessing on how you say it. It's got an apostrophe. I think it's MmmFashnik. Like 'Mmm...cookies!'"
— Dawn, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on how to pronounce the demon M'Fashnik's name.
All apostrophes in the middle of fantasy names are now to be pronounced "boing."
"Nothin'g sa'ys q'uality fantas'y l'ike misuse'd apos'tro'phes."
— James D. Nicoll
"I'm just saying, it could have a cool spelling, with apostropes. Apostrophes are cool."
—Anonymous evil cultist, Exterminatus Now
"You know you're a genre-fiction writer if you consistently place the apostrophes in character names, but you can't get "it's" right."
— Howard Tayler
Few names in Fantasyland are considered complete unless they are interrupted by an apostrophe somewhere in the middle (as in Gna'ash). The only names usually exempt from apostrophes, apart from those of most wizards, heroes and companions on the Tour are those of some countries. No one knows the reasons for this. Nor does anyone really know how an apostrophe should be pronounced, though there are theories.
1: You ignore the apostrophe and simply pronounce the word. (Here Gna'ash = Gnash.)
2: You leave a gap or lacuna where the apostrophe occurs. (Here Gna'ash = Gna-ash.)
3: You make a kind of clucking sound to stand for the apostrophe. (Here Gna'ash = Gnaglunkash.) Persons with insecurely mounted tonsils should adhere to one of the other two theories.
"The Elvish prince was so powerful and legendary that his first name alone contained over twenty apostrophes."
