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In punctuation, a word divider is a form of glyph which separates written words. In languages which use the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic alphabets, as well as other scripts of Europe and West Asia, the word divider is a blank space, or whitespace. This convention is spreading, along with other aspects of European punctuation, to Asia and Africa, where words are usually written without word separation.[better source needed]
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In character encoding, word segmentation depends on which characters are defined as word dividers.
History
In Ancient Egyptian, determinatives may have been used as much to demarcate word boundaries as to disambiguate the semantics of words. Rarely in Assyrian cuneiform, but commonly in the later cuneiform Ugaritic alphabet, a vertical stroke 𒑰 was used to separate words. In Old Persian cuneiform, a diagonally sloping wedge 𐏐 was used.
As the alphabet spread throughout the ancient world, words were often run together without division, and this practice remains or remained until recently in much of South and Southeast Asia. However, not infrequently in inscriptions a vertical line, and in manuscripts a single (·), double (:), or triple (⫶) interpunct (dot) was used to divide words. This practice was found in Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and continues today with Ethiopic, though there whitespace is gaining ground.
Scriptio continua
The early alphabetic writing systems, such as the Phoenician alphabet, had only signs for consonants (although some signs for consonants could also stand for a vowel, so-called matres lectionis). Without some form of visible word dividers, parsing a text into its separate words would have been a puzzle. With the introduction of letters representing vowels in the Greek alphabet, the need for inter-word separation lessened. The earliest Greek inscriptions used interpuncts, as was common in the writing systems which preceded it, but soon the practice of scriptio continua, continuous writing in which all words ran together without separation became common.
Types
None
Alphabetic writing without inter-word separation, known as scriptio continua, was used in Ancient Egyptian. It appeared in Post-classical Latin after several centuries of the use of the interpunct.
Traditionally, scriptio continua was used for the Indic alphabets of South and Southeast Asia and hangul of Korea, but spacing is now used with hangul and increasingly with the Indic alphabets.
Today Chinese and Japanese are the most widely used scripts consistently written without punctuation to separate words, though other scripts such as Thai and Lao also follow this writing convention. In Classical Chinese, a word and a character were almost the same thing, so that word dividers would have been superfluous. Although Modern Mandarin has numerous polysyllabic words, and each syllable is written with a distinct character, the conceptual link between character and word or at least morpheme remains strong, and no need is felt for word separation apart from what characters already provide. This link is also found in the Vietnamese language; however, in the Vietnamese alphabet, virtually all syllables are separated by spaces, whether or not they form word boundaries.
Space
Space is the most common word divider, especially in Latin script.
Vertical lines
Ancient inscribed and cuneiform scripts such as Anatolian hieroglyphs frequently used short vertical lines to separate words, as did Linear B. In manuscripts, vertical lines were more commonly used for larger breaks, equivalent to the Latin comma and period. This was the case for Biblical Hebrew (the paseq) and continues with many Indic scripts today (the danda).
Interpunct, multiple dots, and hypodiastole
| arma·virvmqve·cano·troiae·qvi·primvs·ab·oris italiam·fato·profvgvs·laviniaqve·venit litora·mvltvm·ille·et·terris·iactatvs·et·alto vi·svpervm·saevae·memorem·ivnonis·ob·iram |
| The Latin interpunct |
As noted above, the single and double interpunct were used in manuscripts (on paper) throughout the ancient world. For example, Ethiopic inscriptions used a vertical line, whereas manuscripts used double dots (፡) resembling a colon. The latter practice continues today, though the space is making inroads. Classical Latin used the interpunct in both paper manuscripts and stone inscriptions.Ancient Greek orthography used between two and five dots as word separators, as well as the hypodiastole.
Different letter forms
In the modern Hebrew and Arabic alphabets, some letters have distinct forms at the ends and/or beginnings of words. This demarcation is used in addition to spacing.
Vertical arrangement
The Nastaʿlīq form of Islamic calligraphy uses vertical arrangement to separate words. The beginning of each word is written higher than the end of the preceding word, so that a line of text takes on a sawtooth appearance. Nastaliq spread from Persia and today is used for Persian, Uyghur, Pashto, and Urdu.
Pause
In finger spelling and in Morse code, words are separated by a pause.
Unicode
For use with computers, these marks have codepoints in Unicode:
- U+00B7 · MIDDLE DOT (·, ·, ·), a common substitute for:
- U+2E31 ⸱ WORD SEPARATOR MIDDLE DOT
- U+1361 ፡ ETHIOPIC WORDSPACE
- U+10FB ჻ GEORGIAN PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR
- U+205D ⁝ TRICOLON
- U+2E12 ⸒ HYPODIASTOLE
- U+2E19 ⸙ PALM BRANCH
In Linear B script:
- U+10100 𐄀 AEGEAN WORD SEPARATOR LINE
- U+10101 𐄁 AEGEAN WORD SEPARATOR DOT
See also
- Whitespace
- Sentence spacing
- Speech segmentation
- Zero-width non-joiner
- Zero-width space
- Substitute blank
- Underscore
References
- (Saenger 2000)
- "Determinatives are a most significant aid to legibility, being readily identifiable word dividers." (Ritner 1996:77)
- King, Leonard William (1901). Assyrian Cuneiform. New York: AMS Press. p. 42.
- University of Chicago Press (1911). Manual of Style: A Compilation of Typographical Rules Governing the Publications of The University of Chicago, with Specimens of Types Used at the University Press (Third ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago. p. 101.
this line is spaced.
- (Wingo 1972:16)
Further reading
- Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press.
- Knight, Stan (1996). "The Roman Alphabet". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press.
- Ritner, Robert (1996). "Egyptian Writing". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press.
- Saenger, Paul (2000). Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4016-X.
- Wingo, E. Otha (1972). Latin Punctuation in the Classical Age. Mouton. p. 16.
This article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations September 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message In punctuation a word divider is a form of glyph which separates written words In languages which use the Latin Cyrillic and Arabic alphabets as well as other scripts of Europe and West Asia the word divider is a blank space or whitespace This convention is spreading along with other aspects of European punctuation to Asia and Africa where words are usually written without word separation better source needed Word divider space Latin interpunct Geʽez double point In character encoding word segmentation depends on which characters are defined as word dividers HistoryIn Ancient Egyptian determinatives may have been used as much to demarcate word boundaries as to disambiguate the semantics of words Rarely in Assyrian cuneiform but commonly in the later cuneiform Ugaritic alphabet a vertical stroke was used to separate words In Old Persian cuneiform a diagonally sloping wedge was used As the alphabet spread throughout the ancient world words were often run together without division and this practice remains or remained until recently in much of South and Southeast Asia However not infrequently in inscriptions a vertical line and in manuscripts a single double or triple interpunct dot was used to divide words This practice was found in Phoenician Aramaic Hebrew Greek and Latin and continues today with Ethiopic though there whitespace is gaining ground Scriptio continua The early alphabetic writing systems such as the Phoenician alphabet had only signs for consonants although some signs for consonants could also stand for a vowel so called matres lectionis Without some form of visible word dividers parsing a text into its separate words would have been a puzzle With the introduction of letters representing vowels in the Greek alphabet the need for inter word separation lessened The earliest Greek inscriptions used interpuncts as was common in the writing systems which preceded it but soon the practice of scriptio continua continuous writing in which all words ran together without separation became common TypesNone Alphabetic writing without inter word separation known as scriptio continua was used in Ancient Egyptian It appeared in Post classical Latin after several centuries of the use of the interpunct Traditionally scriptio continua was used for the Indic alphabets of South and Southeast Asia and hangul of Korea but spacing is now used with hangul and increasingly with the Indic alphabets Today Chinese and Japanese are the most widely used scripts consistently written without punctuation to separate words though other scripts such as Thai and Lao also follow this writing convention In Classical Chinese a word and a character were almost the same thing so that word dividers would have been superfluous Although Modern Mandarin has numerous polysyllabic words and each syllable is written with a distinct character the conceptual link between character and word or at least morpheme remains strong and no need is felt for word separation apart from what characters already provide This link is also found in the Vietnamese language however in the Vietnamese alphabet virtually all syllables are separated by spaces whether or not they form word boundaries An example of Javanese script scriptio continua of the first article of declaration of human rights Space Space is the most common word divider especially in Latin script Traditional spacing examples from the 1911 Chicago Manual of Style Vertical lines Ancient inscribed and cuneiform scripts such as Anatolian hieroglyphs frequently used short vertical lines to separate words as did Linear B In manuscripts vertical lines were more commonly used for larger breaks equivalent to the Latin comma and period This was the case for Biblical Hebrew the paseq and continues with many Indic scripts today the danda Interpunct multiple dots and hypodiastole arma virvmqve cano troiae qvi primvs ab oris italiam fato profvgvs laviniaqve venit litora mvltvm ille et terris iactatvs et alto vi svpervm saevae memorem ivnonis ob iramThe Latin interpunctThe Ethiopic double interpunct As noted above the single and double interpunct were used in manuscripts on paper throughout the ancient world For example Ethiopic inscriptions used a vertical line whereas manuscripts used double dots resembling a colon The latter practice continues today though the space is making inroads Classical Latin used the interpunct in both paper manuscripts and stone inscriptions Ancient Greek orthography used between two and five dots as word separators as well as the hypodiastole Different letter forms In the modern Hebrew and Arabic alphabets some letters have distinct forms at the ends and or beginnings of words This demarcation is used in addition to spacing Vertical arrangement Nastaʿliq used for Urdu written right to left The Nastaʿliq form of Islamic calligraphy uses vertical arrangement to separate words The beginning of each word is written higher than the end of the preceding word so that a line of text takes on a sawtooth appearance Nastaliq spread from Persia and today is used for Persian Uyghur Pashto and Urdu Pause In finger spelling and in Morse code words are separated by a pause UnicodeFor use with computers these marks have codepoints in Unicode U 00B7 MIDDLE DOT amp middot amp CenterDot amp centerdot a common substitute for U 2E31 WORD SEPARATOR MIDDLE DOT U 1361 ETHIOPIC WORDSPACE U 10FB GEORGIAN PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR U 205D TRICOLON U 2E12 HYPODIASTOLE U 2E19 PALM BRANCH In Linear B script U 10100 AEGEAN WORD SEPARATOR LINE U 10101 AEGEAN WORD SEPARATOR DOTSee alsoWhitespace Sentence spacing Speech segmentation Zero width non joiner Zero width space Substitute blank UnderscoreReferences Saenger 2000 Determinatives are a most significant aid to legibility being readily identifiable word dividers Ritner 1996 77 King Leonard William 1901 Assyrian Cuneiform New York AMS Press p 42 University of Chicago Press 1911 Manual of Style A Compilation of Typographical Rules Governing the Publications of The University of Chicago with Specimens of Types Used at the University Press Third ed Chicago University of Chicago p 101 this line is spaced Wingo 1972 16 Further readingDaniels Peter T Bright William eds 1996 The World s Writing Systems Oxford University Press Knight Stan 1996 The Roman Alphabet In Daniels Peter T Bright William eds The World s Writing Systems Oxford University Press Ritner Robert 1996 Egyptian Writing In Daniels Peter T Bright William eds The World s Writing Systems Oxford University Press Saenger Paul 2000 Space Between Words The Origins of Silent Reading Stanford University Press ISBN 0 8047 4016 X Wingo E Otha 1972 Latin Punctuation in the Classical Age Mouton p 16
