Editing Interpunct (section)

==In written language==
Various dictionaries use the interpunct (in this context, sometimes called a hyphenation point) to indicate where to split a word and insert a hyphen if the word doesn't fit on the line. There is also a separate Unicode character, {{unichar|2027|hyphenation point}}.

=== English ===
[[File:Mayflower Compact Bradford.jpg|right|thumb|Bradford's transcription of the [[Mayflower Compact]] ]]

In [[British English|British]] [[typography]], the '''space dot''' was once used as the formal [[decimal point]]. Its use was advocated by laws and can still be found in some UK-based academic journals such as ''[[The Lancet]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Lancet – Formatting guidelines for electronic submission of manuscripts |url=http://download.thelancet.com/pb/assets/raw/Lancet/authors/artwork-guidelines.pdf |access-date=2017-04-25}}</ref> When the [[pound sterling]] was [[decimalisation|decimalised]] in 1971, the official advice issued was to write decimal amounts with a raised point (for example, {{code|£21·48}}) and to use a decimal point "on the line" only when typesetting constraints made it unavoidable. However, this usage had already been declining since the 1968 ruling by the [[Ministry of Technology]] to use the [[full stop]] as the decimal point,<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1038/218111c0 |title=Victory on Points |journal=Nature |volume=218 |issue = 5137 |page=111 |year=1968 |bibcode= 1968Natur.218S.111. |doi-access=free}}</ref> not only because of that ruling but also because it is [[Decimal separator#Current standards|the widely-adopted international standard]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf#10.5.2 |title=Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) |page=37 |first1=Ambler |last1=Thompson |first2=Barry N. |last2=Taylor |date=March 2008 |publisher=[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] |access-date=28 March 2018}}</ref> and because the standard [[UK keyboard layout]] (for typewriters and computers) has only the full stop. The space dot is still used by some in handwriting.

In the early modern era, full stops (periods) were sometimes written as interpuncts (for example in the depicted 1646 transcription of the [[Mayflower Compact]]).

In the artificially constructed [[Shavian alphabet]], interpuncts are used instead of [[capitalization]] as the marker of proper nouns. The dot is placed at the beginning of a word.

===Catalan===
[[File:Barcelona - Estació de Paral·lel (7495657866).jpg|thumb|left|230px|Metro station [[Paral·lel (Barcelona Metro)|Paral·lel]] in [[Barcelona]]]]
The '''{{lang|ca|punt volat}}''' ("flying point") is used in [[Catalan language|Catalan]] between two [[L]]s in cases where each belongs to a separate syllable, for example {{lang|ca|cel·la}}, "cell". This distinguishes such "[[geminate]] Ls" ({{lang|ca|ela geminada}}), which are pronounced {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɫ}}ː]}}, from "double L" ({{lang|ca|doble ela}}), which are written without the flying point and are pronounced {{IPAblink|ʎ}}. In situations where the flying point is unavailable, [[period mark|period]]s (as in {{lang|ca|col.lecció}}) or [[hyphen]]s (as in {{lang|ca|col-lecció}}) are frequently used as substitutes, but this is tolerated rather than encouraged.

Historically, medieval Catalan also used the symbol {{char|·}} as a marker for certain [[elision]]s, much like the modern apostrophe (see [[#Occitan|Occitan]] below) and [[Syllabification|hyphenation]]s.

There is no separate physical [[keyboard layout]] for Catalan: the flying point can be typed using {{Key press|Shift|3}} in the [[QWERTY#Spanish|Spanish (Spain) layout]] or with {{Key press|Option |Shift|9}} on a US English layout. On a mobile phone with a Catalan keyboard layout, the geminate L with a flying dot appears when holding down the {{Key press|L}} key. It appears in [[Unicode]] as the [[Precomposed character|pre-composed]] letters {{char|Ŀ}} (U+013F) and {{char|ŀ}} (U+0140), but they are [[Unicode compatibility characters|compatibility characters]] and are not frequently used or recommended.<ref>[http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0100.pdf Unicode Latin Extended A code chart] p.13</ref>{{efn|The preferred Unicode representation is a succession of three characters, that is: {{angle bracket|'''L·L'''}} (U+004C + U+00B7 + U+004C) and {{angle bracket|'''l·l'''}} (U+006C + U+00B7 + U+006C).}}

===Chinese===
The interpunct is used in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] (which generally lacks spacing between [[Chinese characters|characters]]) to mark divisions in words [[Transliteration into Chinese characters|transliterated]] from [[Phonogram (linguistics)|phonogram]] languages, particularly names. Lacking its own code point in Unicode, the interpunct in Chinese shares the code point U+00B7 ({{char|·}}), and it is properly (and in [[Taiwan]] formally)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cns11643.gov.tw/AIDB/query_symbol_view.do?page=1&code=2126 |title=CNS11643 中文全字庫-字碼查詢與下載 |publisher=Cns11643.gov.tw |access-date=2013-04-22 |language=zh |archive-date=2019-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509120621/https://www.cns11643.gov.tw/AIDB/query_symbol_view.do?page=1&code=2126 |url-status=dead }}</ref> of full-width U+30FB ({{char|・}}). When the Chinese text is [[Romanization of Chinese|romanized]], the partition sign is simply replaced by a standard space or other appropriate punctuation. Thus, [[William Shakespeare]] is written as {{lang-zh|t=威廉·莎士比亞|s=威廉·莎士比亞|p=Wēilián Shāshìbǐyà|labels=no|out=s}} and [[George W. Bush]] as {{lang-zh|t=喬治·W·布殊|s=喬治·W·布什|p=Qiáozhì W. Bùshí|labels=no|out=s}}. Titles and other translated words are not similarly marked: [[Genghis Khan]] and [[Elizabeth II]] are simply {{lang-zh|t=成吉思汗|hp=Chéngjísī hán|labels=no|out=c}} and {{lang-zh|s=伊丽莎白二世|t=伊麗莎白二世|hp=Yīlìshābái èrshì|labels=no|out=s}} without a partition sign.

The partition sign is also used to separate book and chapter titles when they are mentioned consecutively: book first and then chapter.

=== Hokkien ===
In [[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]] for [[Taiwanese Hokkien]], middle dot is often used as a workaround for the ''dot above'' right [[diacritic]], since most early encoding systems did not support this diacritic. This is now encoded as {{unichar|0358|COMBINING DOT ABOVE RIGHT|cwith=◌ |note=see [[o͘]]}}. Unicode did not support this diacritic until June 2005. Newer fonts often support it natively; however, the practice of using middle dot still exists. Historically, it was derived in the late 19th century from an older barred-o with curly tail as an adaptation to the typewriter.

===Tibetan===
{{Main|Tibetan alphabet}}
In [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]] the interpunct, called {{lang|bo-Latn|tsek}} ({{lang|bo|ཙེག་}}), is used as a [[morpheme]] delimiter.

=== Ethiopic ===
The [[Geʽez script|Geʽez]] (Ethiopic) script traditionally [[word separator|separates words]] with an interpunct of two vertically aligned dots, like a [[colon (punctuation)|colon]], but with larger dots: {{nobr|{{unichar|1361|Ethiopic wordspace}}.}} (For example {{nobr|{{lang|gez|{{script|Ethi|ገድለ፡ወለተ፡ጴጥሮስ}}}}).}} Starting in the late 19th century the use of such punctuation has largely fallen out of use in favor of whitespace, except in formal hand-written or liturgical texts. In Eritrea the character may be used as a comma.<ref name="ethiospace">{{cite web |title=Ethiopic Wordspace |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/elreq/#ethiopic_punctuation |access-date=16 August 2020}}</ref>

===Franco-Provençal===
In [[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]] (or Arpitan), the interpunct is used in order to distinguish the following graphemes:
* '''ch·''', pronounced {{IPA|[ʃ]}}, versus '''ch''', pronounced {{IPA|[ts]}}
* '''j·''', pronounced {{IPA|[ʒ]}}, versus '''j''', pronounced {{IPA|[dz]}}
* '''g·''' before ''e, i,'' pronounced {{IPA|[ʒ]}}, versus '''g''' before ''e, i,'' pronounced {{IPA|[dz]}}

=== French ===
In modern [[French language|French]], the interpunct is sometimes used for [[Gender-neutral language|gender-neutral]] writing, as in {{lang|fr|les salarié·e·s}} for {{lang|fr|les salariés et les salariées}} ("the employees [both male and female]").

=== Greek ===
{{anchor|Ano teleia|Greek semicolon}}
[[Ancient Greek]] lacked spacing or interpuncts but instead ran all the letters together. By [[Late Antiquity]], various marks were used to separate words, particularly the [[Greek comma]].<ref name=tlg/>

In [[Greek language|modern Greek]], the '''ano teleia''' mark ({{langx|el|άνω τελεία|ánō teleía|upper stop}}; also known as {{langx|el|άνω στιγμή|áno stigmí|label=none}}) is the infrequently-encountered Greek semicolon and is properly [[romanization of Greek|romanized]] as such.<ref name=elot>{{lang|el|Ελληνικός Οργανισμός Τυποποίησης}} [''Ellīnikós Organismós Typopoíīsīs'', "[[Hellenic Organization for Standardization]]"]. {{lang|el|ΕΛΟΤ 743, 2η Έκδοση}} [''ELOT 743, 2ī Ekdosī'', "ELOT 743, {{nowrap|2nd ed.}}"]. ELOT (Athens), 2001. {{in lang|el}}.</ref> In Greek text, [[Unicode]] provides the code point {{unichar|0387|Greek ano teleia}},<ref>[[Unicode]]. "[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf Unicode Greek code chart]", {{nowrap|pp. 34,}} 36.</ref> however, it is also expressed as an interpunct. In practice, the separate code point for ano teleia canonically decomposes to the interpunct.<ref name=tlg>{{cite web|url=http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html#semicolon |title=Thesaurus Linguae Graecae |publisher=www.tlg.uci.edu |access-date=2011-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120806003722/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html |archive-date=2012-08-06 }}</ref>

The Hellenistic scholars of [[Alexandria]] first developed the mark for a function closer to the [[comma]], before it fell out of use and was then repurposed for its present role.<ref name=tlg/>

=== Japanese ===
{{Main|Japanese punctuation}}
Interpuncts are often used to separate transcribed foreign names or words written in [[katakana]]. For example, "[[Beautiful Sunday (song)|Beautiful Sunday]]" becomes {{lang|ja|ビューティフル・サンデー}} ({{Transliteration|ja|Byūtifuru·Sandē}}). A middle dot is also sometimes used to separate lists in [[Japanese language|Japanese]] instead of the [[Comma#East Asia|Japanese comma]]. Dictionaries and [[grammar]] lessons in Japanese sometimes also use a similar symbol to separate a [[verb]] [[Affix|suffix]] from its root. While some fonts may render the Japanese middle dot as a square under great magnification, this is not a defining property of the middle dot that is used in China or Japan.

However, the Japanese writing system usually does not use space or punctuation to separate words (though the mixing of katakana, [[kanji]] and [[hiragana]] gives some indication of word boundary).

In Japanese [[typography]], there exist two Unicode code points:
* {{unichar|30FB|katakana middle dot}}, with a fixed width that is the same as most kana characters, known as ''fullwidth''.
* {{unichar|FF65|halfwidth katakana middle dot}}

The interpunct also has a number of other uses in Japanese, including the following: to separate titles, names and positions: {{lang|ja-Hani|課長補佐・鈴木}} (Assistant Section Head · Suzuki); as a decimal point when writing numbers in kanji: {{lang|ja-Hani|{{nowrap|三・一四一五九二 (3.141 592)}}}}; as a slash when writing for "or" in abbreviations: {{lang|ja-Hani|{{nowrap|月・水・金曜日 (Mon/Wed/Friday)}}}}; in place of hyphens, dashes and colons when writing vertically; and in song lyrics to add a brief pause between syllables.

=== Korean ===
Interpuncts are used in written Korean to denote a list of two or more words, similarly to how a [[Slash (punctuation)|slash]] (/) is used to juxtapose words in many other languages. In this role it also functions in a similar way to the English [[en dash]], as in {{lang|ko|미·소관계}}, "American–Soviet relations". The use of interpuncts has declined in years of digital typography and especially in place of slashes, but, in the strictest sense, a slash cannot replace a middle dot in Korean typography.

{{unichar|318D|Hangul letter araea}} ({{lang|ko|아래아}}) is used more than a middle dot when an interpunct is to be used in Korean typography, though ''araea'' is technically not a punctuation symbol but actually an [[Hangul#Obsolete letters|obsolete Hangul ''jamo'']]. Because ''araea'' is a [[full-width]] letter, it looks better than middle dot between Hangul. In addition, it is drawn like the middle dot in Windows default Korean fonts such as ''[[Ming (typeface)|Batang]]''.

=== Latin ===
The interpunct ({{lang|la|interpunctus}}) was regularly used in [[classical Latin]] to separate words. In addition to the most common round form, [[inscription]]s sometimes use a small [[equilateral triangle]] for the interpunct, pointing either up or down. It may also appear as a mid-line comma, similar to the [[#Greek|Greek]] practice of the time. The interpunct fell out of use {{circa|lk=no|200 CE}}, and [[Latin]] was then written {{lang|la|[[scripta continua]]}} for several centuries.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

=== Occitan ===
In [[Occitan language|Occitan]], especially in the [[Gascon language|Gascon]] dialect, the interpunct (''punt interior'', literally, "inner dot", or ''ponch naut'' for "high / upper point") is used to distinguish the following graphemes:
* '''s·h''', pronounced {{IPA|[s.h]}}, versus '''sh''', pronounced {{IPA|[ʃ]}}, for example, in ''des·har'' 'to undo' vs ''deishar'' 'to leave'
* '''n·h''', pronounced {{IPA|[n.h]}}, versus '''nh''', pronounced {{IPA|[ɲ]}}, for example in ''in·hèrn'' 'hell' vs ''vinha'' 'vineyard'
Although it is considered to be a spelling error, a [[Full stop|period]] is frequently used when a middle dot is unavailable: ''des.har, in.hèrn'', which is the case for French [[Keyboard layout#French|keyboard layout]].

In modern editions of [[Old Occitan]] texts, the apostrophe and interpunct are used to denote certain [[elision]]s that were not originally marked. The apostrophe is used with [[Clitic#Proclitic|proclitic]] forms and the interpunct is used with [[Clitic#Enclitic|enclitic]] forms:
* '''que·l''' (''que lo'', that the) versus '''qu'el''' (that he)
* From [[Bertran de Born]]'s ''Ab joi mou lo vers e·l comens'' (translated by James H. Donalson):
{{col-begin}}
{{col-3}}
''Bela Domna·l vostre cors gens'' <br/>
''E·lh vostre bel olh m'an conquis,'' <br/>
''E·l doutz esgartz e lo clars vis,'' <br/>
''E·l vostre bels essenhamens,'' <br/>
''Que, can be m'en pren esmansa,'' <br/>
''De beutat no·us trob egansa:'' <br/>
''La genser etz c'om posc'e·l mon chauzir,'' <br/>
''O no·i vei clar dels olhs ab que·us remir.''
{{col-3}}
''Domna·l'' {{IPA|[ˈdonnal]}} = ''Domna, lo'' ("Lady, the": singular [[Definite article#Definite article|definite article]]) <br/>
''E·lh'' {{IPA|[eʎ]}} = ''E li'' ("And the": plural definite article) <br/>
''E·l'' {{IPA|[el]}} = ''E lo'' ("And the") <br/>
''E·l'' = ''E lo'' ("And the") <br/>
<br>
''No·us'' {{IPA|[nows]}} = ''Non vos'' ("(do) not... you": [[Indirect objects|direct object]] pronoun) <br/>
''E·l'' = ''En lo'' ("in the") <br/>
''No·i''  {{IPA|[noj]}} = ''Non i'' ("(do) not... there") // ''Que·us'' {{IPA|[kews]}} = ''Que vos'' ("that (I)... you")
{{col-3}}
O pretty lady, all your grace <br/>
and eyes of beauty conquered me, <br/>
sweet glance and brightness of your face <br/>
and all your nature has to tell <br/>
so if I make an appraisal <br/>
I find no one like in beauty: <br/>
most pleasing to be found in all the world <br/>
or else the eyes I see you with have dimmed.
{{col-end}}

=== Old Irish ===
In many linguistic works discussing [[Old Irish]] (but not in actual Old Irish manuscripts), the interpunct is used to separate a pretonic preverbal element from the stressed syllable of the verb, e.g. {{lang|sga|do·beir}} "gives". It is also used in citing the verb forms used after such preverbal elements (the [[prototonic]] forms), e.g. {{lang|sga|·beir}} "carries", to distinguish them from forms used without preverbs, e.g. {{lang|sga|beirid}} "carries".<ref>{{cite book| page=25| title=A Grammar of Old Irish| first=Rudolf| last=Thurneysen|author-link=Rudolf Thurneysen| others=trans. D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin| year=1946| publisher=Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies| isbn=1-85500-161-6}}</ref> In other works, the [[hyphen]] ({{lang|sga|do-beir}}, {{lang|sga|-beir}}) or [[colon (punctuation)|colon]] ({{lang|sga|do:beir}}, {{lang|sga|:beir}}) may be used for this purpose.

=== Runes ===
[[Runic]] texts use either an interpunct-like or a colon-like punctuation mark to separate words. There are two [[Unicode]] characters dedicated for this:
* {{unichar|16EB|Runic single punctuation}}
* {{unichar|16EC|Runic multiple punctuation}}