Word divider

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Word divider
  ·
space Latin interpunct Geʽez double point

In

better source needed
]

In character encoding, word segmentation depends on which characters are defined as word dividers.

History

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.[3]

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 (⫶)

Ethiopic
, though there whitespace is gaining ground.

Scriptio continua

The early

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

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[4]

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
The 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.[5] 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

Nastaʿlīq used for Urdu (written right-to-left)

The

Pashto, and Urdu
.

Pause

In

, words are separated by a pause.

Unicode

For use with computers, these marks have

:

See also

References

  1. ^ (Saenger 2000)
  2. ^ "Determinatives are a most significant aid to legibility, being readily identifiable word dividers." (Ritner 1996:77)
  3. ^ King, Leonard William (1901). Assyrian Cuneiform. New York: AMS Press. p. 42.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ (Wingo 1972:16)

Further reading