Hello! These are a few things that came up when editing my recent tale concerning the village of Roko'a. Please help me sort these out... “It is not right, my Lord,” the cook said, gesturing with a colossal wooden spoon. He poked a finger into the near-boiling stew, tasted it, and took on a thoughtful pose. “You're ashen right it's not right,” said the Lord, “the bastard has my daughter now!” Should “lord” be capitalized even though it refers to a man and not Him, The Lord, God, etc? "The identity of the man, the traveling sorceror, or whatever he wanted to call himself, was not known." As Oasis pointed out, the correct spelling is 'sorcerer.' I had wanted to spell it sorceror in the scope of this universe, however. Can I do that? Or will people just assume that I misspelled it. "She knew that no one moved quickly down Roko'a's streets, unless they had something to hide... or chase." In my tale is a town with an apostrophe in it's name- Roko'a. I'm having trouble getting my word processor to like it when I use the name of a town like Roko'a in the possessive sense, like “Roko'a's.” Is there a way around this? Or am I even supposed to use an apostrophe here?
not in that context. If lord is used in the context of a proper nown, however, it would be capitalized: If they know the correct spelling, they will assume it was a mistake on your part. Oasis' review exemplifies that. If that's the name of the town, then the possessive seems appropriate to me exactly as you typed it. You can either add the name to your personal dictionary, or you can just live with the red squiggly. Interestingly, Stephen King's fictional town of 'Salem's Lot (a contraction of Jerusalem's Lot) is accepted by Word without a whimper.
1. Do not capitalize lord in this instance. Unless you are specifically talking to him and using lord in place of the name (like if you had said "It is not right, Lord" it would be capp'd, but the "my" uncaps it, similar to if you said "it is not right, Mother" versus "It is not right, my mother") In either case, do not capitalize lord in the "said the lord" part. Always capitalize it if it's followed by his name, like Lord Byron. 2. People will think you've misspelled it, but if you establish that it is different than a sorcerer, or title-ify it by making it Sorceror, then it would make more sense. 3. You're supposed to do that with the apostrophes, but I very rarely say "Atlanta's streets"...it sounds more natural to me to say "the streets of Atlanta" so you might get around it that way. If you must use a possessive, perhaps replace it with "the city's"....and if it absolutely must be the proper name, then you're doing it right with the double apostrophe.
1. As already mentioned it should not be capitalised in this context. 2. Some authors alter words and make them their own and it works for them, but it is possible for people to just assume that it has been spelt incorrectly. 3. I have to agree with Vayda, i'd definitely say "the streets of Roko'a" rather than "Roko'a's streets" as it just reads a litle easier but I don't think you'd be incorrect in the way you have done it at the moment.
Even if you often can avoid the possessive of Roko'a, you may find it overly restrictive or obvious if you must do a lot of it, so it's useful to know how to confidently form the standard possessive.
