There are times when my duties as style maven for National Geographic seem ludicrous. This occurred the other day as I found myself discussing diacritical marks with fellow editors at the same time that world news was focusing on tens of thousands of people dead and suffering in Myanmar, from a cyclone, and in China, from an earthquake.

Egads, I thought, does it really matter that the glottal stop in Farsi—or, as some would insist, Persian—words is a closing single quotation mark but in Arabic words should be an opening single quote? Is such a subtly of copyediting really important in the larger scheme of things?

I reflected: Maybe not as important as treating the injured, but still important in its own way. Not all of us can be relief workers, rendering aid and support in an emergency. We must find other ways to contribute. Helping people communicate clearly and unambiguously has value. And being consistent in the use of diacritical marks is a signal that much thought has gone into a publication, that it’s trustworthy and worth reading. Besides, correctly printing diacritical marks is something I have control over. Overthrowing the junta in Myanmar is not.

So back to glottal stops. Generally in editorial copy National Geographic magazine uses accents with those languages written in the Latin alphabet, such as French, German, and Spanish, but deletes accents on languages transliterated from another alphabet (for instance, Russian and Arabic) because they mean nothing to most readers.

Recently National Geographic has started using glottal stops (opening single quote mark) and macrons (long line over vowels) in Hawaiian words and names, because they are now commonly used by residents, and legislators, of our 50th state. Place-names such as Hawai‘i National Park are correctly spelled with a glottal stop. At present, though, I still resist using a glottal stop in the state name when it’s a passing reference in a text that’s not focused on Hawaii. I expect, however, that at some point soon the glottal stop spelling will become familiar and no longer cause me to pause.

National Geographic cartographers use more diacritical marks on maps and atlases than the magazine does in text, which is why we were discussing Persian and Arabic accent marks. When producing a map of Iran, a glottal stop in an Arabic name is shown as an opening single quote while in Persian names it’s the reverse—unless of course the Persian name is derived from an Arabic word, in which case it uses the Arabic diacritical mark.

See why these discussions can seem ludicrous! But they also indicate an attention to detail that’s always been a hallmark of National Geographic.

No matter what is going on elsewhere on our planet, some of us at National Geographic will debate minutiae of editorial style and hope that our decisions lead to clear, effective communication with our readers throughout the world.

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