Cyprus-Forum.com

[greekquest]

Hello,
Someone who is claiming to be a Greek Cypriot says that in you do not put spaces after your commas and periods like we do in English. Instead, this person claims it is normal to write a sentence using this punctuation:
EXAMPLE:
"Hello,my name is Alf.I really like this forum,please answer my question."

In English we would put a space after each comma and period so that it would read:
"Hello, my name is Alf. I really like this forum, please answer my question."

Is this person telling the truth about the punctuation that you use?


Thank you,
greekquest

[bill cobbett]

Think you're being told rubbish.

Welcome to CF.

[theodosia]

now you got me thinking bill, hmmm good question

[Jerry]

Hello,
Someone who is claiming to be a Greek Cypriot says that in you do not put spaces after your commas and periods like we do in English. Instead, this person claims it is normal to write a sentence using this punctuation:
EXAMPLE:
"Hello,my name is Alf.I really like this forum,please answer my question."

In English we would put a space after each comma and period so that it would read:
"Hello, my name is Alf. I really like this forum, please answer my question."

Is this person telling the truth about the punctuation that you use?


Thank you,
greekquest

The English also call this "." a full stop not a period. Period is an American intrusion into our language. There are quite a few American corruptions of traditional English terms and words. We used to say "Railway Station", now it's "Train Station". We used to say that something was "free" but now it's "for free". Everyone is now a "guy" or (worse still) a "dude" instead of a "bloke" or "chap". Americans use the word "dove" as past tense for "dive" instead of "dived".

Dove is a bloody bird for Christ's sake.

And the response to "How are you?" is "I'm good" these days instead of "I’m well".

There are loads more in John Humphry's book "Lost for Words"

[GreekIslandGirl]

Hello,
Someone who is claiming to be a Greek Cypriot says that in you do not put spaces after your commas and periods like we do in English. Instead, this person claims it is normal to write a sentence using this punctuation:
EXAMPLE:
"Hello,my name is Alf.I really like this forum,please answer my question."

In English we would put a space after each comma and period so that it would read:
"Hello, my name is Alf. I really like this forum, please answer my question."

Is this person telling the truth about the punctuation that you use?


Thank you,
greekquest

This is interesting because it retains the information but is space saving. In Ancient Greek, they left neither spaces between words, nor used punctuation. The spaces between words should be independent of punctuation and help identify the words. The punctuation is an additional pause to the short gap or space between words and helps with grammatical meaning. The more prescriptive would enforce the space whether a punctuation mark is used or not. But it still retains sense - so, why not? Personally, I don't think it looks neat to squash in the words just because you are using a punctuation sign.

If you look at any modern Greek text, you will see spaces and punctuation used as in your second example, not the first.

[Get Real!]

"Hello, my name is Alf. I really like this forum, please answer my question."

Welcome aboard Alf!

[theodosia]

"Hello, my name is Alf. I really like this forum, please answer my question."

Welcome aboard Alf!

hello, and welcome alf.

[greekquest]

Hi- LOL my name isn't really Alf, I was just using that as an example. You can call me SG or greekquest or what not.

Thank you for the responses. I think I have determined that the person who is claiming that punctuation is used in his country is in fact a spammer--or something worse.

Jerry, interesting point about American English vs British English, I'm American as you may have discerned, but its a past time of mine to imitate other (usually British or Irish dialects). One dialect I have the worst trouble with is Australian English...g'day mate, grab a plank, no worries.. lol.

I would like to learn Greek though, so I can read some ancient Greek scriptures in the original form.

Nice to meet you all,
SG/greekquest