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Commas are often used to enclose parenthetical words and phrases within a sentence (i.e., information that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence). Such phrases are both preceded and followed by a comma, unless that would result in a doubling of punctuation marks or the parenthetical is at the start or end of the sentence. The ...
The phrase a great singer, set off by commas, is both an appositive and a parenthesis. A dog (not a cat) is an animal that barks. The phrase not a cat is a parenthesis. My umbrella (which is somewhat broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain. The phrase which is somewhat broken is a parenthesis. Please, Gerald, come here!
Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other than just the letters of the alphabet. [1] English punctuation has two complementary aspects: phonological punctuation, linked to how the sentence can be read aloud, particularly to pausing; [2] and grammatical punctuation, linked to the structure of the sentence. [3]
The difference between an Oxford comma and a regular comma is that an Oxford comma refers to the final comma in a series that would come before the last conjunction of a sentence.
The comma after "merchants" is wrong because the conjunction is not followed by an independent clause. "But less accessible" is really parenthetical, as Jack pointed out, so although parentheticality is a judgement call, this time it's pretty clear. The comma after "Swahili" is highly recommended as a mercy to the reader.
There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where a punctuation mark follows (though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket) and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets. Avoid adjacent sets of brackets. Either put the parenthetical phrases in one set separated by semicolons, or rewrite:
A comma before or after the material can also be used, though if the sentence contains commas for other purposes, visual confusion may result. A dash before and after the material is also sometimes used. Parentheses may be used in formal writing to add supplementary information, such as "Senator John McCain (R - Arizona) spoke at length".
That, it seems to me, is the very point of enclosing certain words in parentheses or surrounding them with dashes, rather than just using commas. Commas can act parenthetically, but they often just indicate a slight pause, or act merely to clarify the meaning. OTOH, actual parentheses or dashes are "hard coded", and should be treated as such.
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