The River's Called the Hudson

Then I shall be 'the Hudson' too.

Because if you can't quote Gargoyles about names, when can you? (Let us gloss over 10th century Scottish Gargoyles speaking anything other than Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon.)

Was reading this, by Tom Simon (again). It's called "Gwladys and the Ghraem'lan", and it's about silly fantasy names (although, seriously, would you prefer "Jim. Jim...Darkmagic! Of the New Hampshire Darkmagics"?).

But I felt I had to protest: there is another reason to use apostrophes, not merely the one M. Simon mentions vis-à-vis the abbreviation for "Mc" (and by extension "cat" in that Cordwainer Smith story). Namely, some languages use that symbol for a consonant. Indeed, I say you're only allowed to use apostrophes as consonants, and indeed you must come by all your diacritics honestly—the lady in that Cordwainer Smith story should've been named "C. Mell", just like an Asimov robot with an "R." in front of its name.

For instance, in my third SF book, one of the supporting cast is named Ta'neeszahnii Táchii'nii K'elwod. But he's not an alien; he's a US Marine gunnery sergeant from Window Rock, Arizona. He just happens to be Navajo, and in the 24th century they don't bother with Anglo names anymore—his name is K'elwod (which means "he resumed, and kept, running", because Navajo's aspect-system is diabolical) of the Tangle clan, born for the Red-Running-into-the-Water clan.

I'm a firm believer in adequate Romanizations. My Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dialogue and names are written in pinyin/Yale, slightly modified Hepburn, and Revised Romanization, respectively, and I don't forgo the diacritic marks because bitches are afraid of them. The guy Drunken Master is based on was Wòhng Fèihùhng, thank you, not Wong Fei-hung, and that thing old people and hippies do in parks is called tàijíquán, not taijiquan and certainly not tai chi chuan.

My felinoids' language is romanized with tildes (~) over A and O, to represent the "purred" vowels (unrounded and rounded, respectively). Similarly my dromaeosaurs' language uses several diacritics to mark tone (because the alternative is writing numbers after syllables, and that looks asinine). The evangelical Heideggerians have only one diacritic in their romanization, the umlaut (technically the diaeresis), marking a peculiar sort of "voicing" (except they don't have voice-boxes, they resonate their whole respiratory system, like humpback whales).

Also, don't ever use Y for a vowel (or W, but nobody seems to know that's a vowel in Welsh, too). I don't care how Celtic a flavor you're going for, Y randomly used in place of I just looks like a stripper name. You're only allowed to use Y as anything other than IPA j, if you need an orthography for the close-front rounded vowel (the Ü in German) and your language needs Ü for something else (a tone, for instance, or if its vowel-system allows a U with diaeresis accent). My dromaeosaurs' language does use W for a vowel, but that's because their language uses a sort of hollow hissing noise for a semi-vowel—they also have two click-consonants that don't have an IPA letter (I collect them), and technically their "voices" are two different air-channels through their sinuses, so what the hell do you want from me?

Just incidentally, my robots consider putting "R." in front of their names a racial slur.

PS. Elric of Melniboné, unless his planet inexplicably has a France, should be Elric of Melnibone—since it doesn't have an England either, that last E can't be silent (or rather serve to lengthen the preceding vowel by making the final consonant orthographically medial). Unless maybe it has a Rome, and uses the accute accent as a substitute for the "apex" (the long vowel marker)—since it's only in Latin and Latinate languages that a long E is a different sound from a short one (IPA e: vs. IPA ɛ). Maybe we should pass a law that all fantasy should be written by linguists.

Then again you'd think a man who goes through life saddled with the name "Moorcock" would be more alert to how his character's name lends itself to the corruption "Eldick of Melniboner".