Slovene Punctuation - Ellipsis

Ellipsis

Syntactical Use

An ellipsis (in Slovene, literally 'three dots') (…) is a non-leaning punctuation mark. It expresses omission of words.

• Nekaj sem govorila … (I was saying something …)
• … kaj to ni res? (… is this not true?)
• Heh … česa vsega ne pove. (Heh … whatever he/she says.)
• Ja … in? (Yes … so?)
• Saj bi šel, pa … (I/He would go, but …) (an alternative is to write this thus: "Saj bi šel, pa –)

Any other punctuation may or may not be appended; a full stop is usually (but not always) omitted, but other punctuation normally remains:

• Da … or Da …. (Yes …)
• O, a tako je bilo …? (Oh, it was so …?)

When emphasising that whatever has been left out is a subsequent omission not performed by the original author, the ellipsis is enclosed in round or square brackets (, ), or, more often, in solidi (//).

• The original sentence in full: "Nekaj mi šepeta, nekaj točno določenega, skoraj čutiti bi se dalo, da gre ta šolska ura h koncu." (Something is whispering to me, something exactly defined, it can almost be felt, that this period is nearing completion.)
  • Nekaj mi šepeta /…/ da gre ta šolska ura h koncu. (Something is whispering to me /…/ that this period is nearing completion.)

An ellipsis may indicate an inserted sentence, though a dash is more often used in such cases:

• Lepo je bilo … kako tudi ne? …, saj je dež nežno padal, mi pa smo tesno drug ob drugem ležali ob kaminu. (It was nice … how wouldn't it be? … for the rain was gently falling, and we were lying closely to one another near the fireplace.)
  • Lepo je bilo – kako tudi ne? –, saj je dež nežno padal, mi pa smo tesno drug ob drugem ležali ob kaminu.

An ellipsis usually indicates pausing or abrupt interruption. When used as a sentence closing punctuation mark, the pitch is cadent, thus decreased towards the end of such a sentence, or semi-cadent, indicating a half-finished thought, or there is no change in pitch.

Non-Syntactical Use

A non-syntactical ellipsis is left-leaning, and expresses omission of a word part.

• Otorinola… – ne vem naprej. (Otorhinola… – I don't know further.) (probably otorinolaringolog; otorhinolaryngologist)
• Tristo kosmatih med… (Three hundred hairy be…) ("Tristo kosmatih medvedov" (Three hundred hairy bears) is a traditional – and one of the few present in Slovene – profanity, though rather innocent and extremely seldom used.)