Style Guide

The Veriti Sande Style Guide is the State of Sandus’s official style guide. It prescribes how Sandus’s official languages operate in their official style and establishes the literary standards of the State of Sandus.

English

English in Sandus follows closely upon Canadian English in terms of orthography and spelling, though its diction and punctuation follow closely upon American English.

ORTHOGRAPHY:
In terms of orthography, Sandus is more similar to Canadian and British forms of English. Nouns which end in -or in American English are spelled -our in Sandus, and words which include Zs are written with Ss. For example, in Sandus, it is the style to write “labour,” “fraternise,” and “organisation.”

In Sandus, nouns which have a prefix that does not elide into the first vowel of the word formally have a dieresis, such as in “coöperation” or “whereäs.”

PUNCTUATION:
In the Sandum style, punctuation is used in relatively straightforward way, barring artistic licence.

Commas are used often to delineate specific clauses, such as subordinate and relative clauses, and may be used more in formal writing than in other formal forms of writing outside of Sandus.

Punctuation denoting a query or an exclamation often comes at the end of the entire sentence, though it can also come at the end of the clause most naturally a part of the query or exclamation, even though the sentence may continue in either a dependent or independent clause. (This is meant to highlight the question or exclamation being written.)

Quotation marks are of two kinds. The standard English quotation marks (“…” or ‘…’) are used abutted with the word or phrase it is quoting, as well as French quotation marks with a small space between the word or phrase quoted (« … »). Sandus does not yet distinguish between the American and British forms of quotations marks, i.e. the use of singular and double quotation marks. (In Britain, quotation marks ascend in number from single to double quotation marks; in the United States, they descend from double to single.) The pointed quotation mark is used in more uncommon situations when French is not being used to highlight the text, such as a slogan or motto.

Parenthetical statements are used most common with parentheses but brackets can be used for technical reasons, such as edited or supposed sections of text. Often, parenthetical statements dependent on the context of a particular sentence are also often set off by em dashes within a sentence, while parenthetical statements independent of a sentence’s context are set off by parentheses.

PRONOUNS:
Pronouns are an important function of language, as they identify the subject or object of a sentence without having to restate the name or title of the person or object. This cuts down on the amount of words one has to write or say, while also allowing for more artistic licence on the part of the communicator. These days, moreover, many new third personal singular pronouns exist to reflect a person’s gender identity, and it is out of respect and good will toward that person that we in Sandus always use an individual’s stated or preferred pronoun(s). In Sandus, the third person gender neutral “they” undoubtedly exists and we prefer to use a singular and gender-neutral “they” in generic and general conditional statements in written media. We do our best not to assume one’s pronouns, though being human we do err.

Sandus’s use of pronouns is influenced by our relationship with other languages, such as Latin and French, where pronouns have an almost technical usage. Here are some of the pronouns we use in Sandus:

	Singular	Plural
1st	I	We
2nd	You	You
3rd	He, She, They, Það, etc.	They

Sometimes, a number or a quantity may follow a pronoun to highlight the inclusion or exclusion of the subject or object. E.g., “We all agree with you” or “I agree with you two.” This is especially found in polemic and rhetorical uses.

The Sôgmô also has an official pronoun in Sandus. The Icelandic third person singular neuter pronoun það is used to refer to the Office of the Sôgmô. It is declined in the following way:

Nominative:	það
Genitive:	þess
Dative:	því
Accusative:	það

In email correspondence and on business cards, one will often see pronouns following the name to specify what pronouns an individual uses. For example, on the Sôgmô’s email signature and virtual business card, það is declined on the bottom under þess name and signature.

CITATION:
Citation style often depends on the audience and nature of the publication itself. However, the Chicago Manual of Style (Turabian) is often used, in addition to a combined style between the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and Turabian styles.

Français

À venir…

Lingua Latina

Futurum…