Editing Punctuation (section)

==History==
Punctuation marks, especially [[Space (punctuation)|spacing]], were not needed in [[Logogram|logographic]] or [[Syllabary|syllabic]] (such as [[Written Chinese|Chinese]] and [[Mayan script]]) texts because disambiguation and emphasis could be communicated by employing a separate written form distinct from the spoken form of the language. Ancient Chinese classical texts were transmitted without punctuation. However, many [[Warring States period]] bamboo texts contain the symbols {{angbr|└}} and {{angbr|▄}} indicating the end of a chapter and [[full stop]], respectively.<ref name="Warring States">林清源，《簡牘帛書標題格式研究》台北： 藝文印書館，2006。(Lin Qingyuan, ''Study of Title Formatting in Bamboo and Silk Texts'' Taipei: Yiwen Publishing, 2006.) {{ISBN|957-520-111-6}}.</ref> By the [[Song dynasty]], the addition of punctuation to texts by scholars to aid comprehension became common.<ref name="History of the Song Dynasty">The ''[[History of Song (Yuan dynasty)|History of the Song Dynasty]]'' (1346) states 「凡所讀書，無不加標點。」 (Among those who read texts, there are none who do not add punctuation).</ref>

===Western antiquity===
During antiquity, most scribes in the West wrote in {{lang|la|[[scriptio continua]]}}, i.e. without punctuation delimiting [[Word#Word boundaries|word boundaries]]. Around the 5th century&nbsp;BC, the Greeks began using punctuation consisting of vertically arranged dots—usually a dicolon or tricolon—as an aid in the oral delivery of texts. After 200&nbsp;BC, Greek scribes adopted the {{tlit|grc|théseis}} system invented by [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]], where a single dot called a {{tlit|grc|punctus}} was placed at one of several heights to denote rhetorical divisions in speech:
* {{tlit|grc|hypostigmḗ}}{{snd}}a low {{tlit|grc|punctus}} on the baseline to mark off a {{tlit|grc|komma}} (a unit smaller than a [[clause]])
* {{tlit|grc|stigmḕ mésē}}{{snd}}a {{tlit|grc|punctus}} at midheight to mark off a clause ({{tlit|grc|kōlon}})
* {{tlit|grc|stigmḕ teleía}}{{snd}}a high {{tlit|grc|punctus}} to mark off a sentence ({{tlit|grc|periodos}})<ref>E. Otha Wingo, ''Latin Punctuation in the Classical Age'' (The Hague, Netherlands: De Gruyter, 1972), 22.</ref>
In addition, the Greeks used the [[paragraphos]] (or [[gamma]]) to mark the beginning of sentences, marginal [[Diple (textual symbol)|diple]]s to mark quotations, and a [[Coronis (textual symbol)|koronis]] to indicate the end of major sections.

During the 1st century&nbsp;BC, [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] also made occasional use of symbols to indicate pauses, but by the 4th century&nbsp;AD the Greek {{tlit|grc|théseis}}—called {{lang|la|distinctiones}} in Latin{{efn|The Latin names for the marks are {{lang|la|subdistinctio}}, {{lang|la|media distinctio}}, and {{lang|la|distinctio}}.}}—prevailed, as reported by [[Aelius Donatus]] and [[Isidore of Seville]] (7th century). Latin texts were sometimes laid out {{lang|la|per capitula}}, where each sentence was placed on its own line. Diples were used, but by the late period these often degenerated into comma-shaped marks.

===Medieval===
Punctuation developed dramatically when large numbers of copies of the [[Bible]] started to be produced. These were designed to be read aloud, so the [[copyist]]s began to introduce a range of marks to aid the reader, including [[Indentation (typesetting)|indentation]], various punctuation marks ([[diple (textual symbol)|diple]], {{lang|grc-Latn|[[paragraphos]]}}, {{lang|la|simplex ductus}}), and an early version of initial capitals ({{lang|la|litterae notabiliores}}). [[Jerome]] and his colleagues, who made a translation of the Bible into [[Latin]], the [[Vulgate]] ({{circa|AD 400}}), employed a layout system based on established practices for teaching the speeches of [[Demosthenes]] and [[Cicero]]. Under his layout {{lang|la|per cola et commata}} every sense-unit was indented and given its own line. This layout was solely used for biblical manuscripts during the 5th–9th centuries but was abandoned in favor of punctuation.

In the 7th–8th centuries [[Irish people|Irish]] and [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] scribes, whose [[native language]]s were not derived from [[Latin]], added more visual cues to render texts more intelligible. Irish scribes introduced the practice of [[space (punctuation)|word separation]].<ref>{{cite book |first=M. B. |last=Parkes |chapter=The Contribution of Insular Scribes of the Seventh and Eighth Centuries to the 'Grammar of Legibility' |title=Scribes, Scripts and Readers: Studies in the Communication, Presentation and Dissemination of Medieval Texts |location=London |publisher=Hambledon Press |date=1991 |pages=1–18}}</ref> Likewise, insular scribes adopted the {{lang|grc-Latn|[[distinctiones]]}} system while adapting it for minuscule script (so as to be more prominent) by using not differing height but rather a differing number of marks—aligned horizontally (or sometimes triangularly)—to signify a pause's duration: one mark for a minor pause, two for a medium one, and three for a major one. Most common were the {{lang|la|punctus}}, a comma-shaped mark, and a 7-shaped mark ({{lang|la|comma positura}}), often used in combination. The same marks could be used in the margin to mark off quotations.

In the late 8th century a different system emerged in [[Francia|France]] under the [[Carolingian dynasty]]. Originally indicating how the voice should be [[modulation (music)|modulated]] when chanting the [[liturgy]], the {{lang|la|positurae}} migrated into any text meant to be read aloud, and then to all manuscripts. {{lang|la|[[Positurae]]}} first reached [[England]] in the late 10th century, probably during the Benedictine reform movement, but was not adopted until after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]]. The original {{lang|la|positurae}} were the {{lang|la|punctus}}, {{lang|la|punctus elevatus}},<ref>{{cite web |title=Paleography: How to Read Medieval Handwriting |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |url=http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic453618.files/Central/editions/paleo.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208074905/http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic453618.files/Central/editions/paleo.html |archive-date= 8 December 2015 |access-date=13 November 2017}}</ref> {{lang|la|punctus versus}}, and {{lang|la|punctus interrogativus}}, but a fifth symbol, the {{lang|la|punctus flexus}}, was added in the 10th century to indicate a pause of a value between the {{lang|la|punctus}} and {{lang|la|punctus elevatus}}. In the late 11th/early 12th century the {{lang|la|punctus versus}} disappeared and was taken over by the simple {{lang|la|punctus}} (now with two distinct values).<ref>Raymond Clemens & Timothy Graham, ''Introduction to Manuscript Studies'' (Ithaca–London: Cornell UP, 2007), 84–6.</ref>

The [[late Middle Ages]] saw the addition of the {{lang|la|virgula suspensiva}} (slash or slash with a midpoint dot) which was often used in conjunction with the {{lang|la|punctus}} for different types of pauses. Direct quotations were marked with marginal diples, as in Antiquity, but from at least the 12th century scribes also began entering diples (sometimes double) within the column of text.

===Printing-press era===
{{anchor|Later developments|reason=Old section name; might be linked-to.}}
The amount of printed material and its readership began to increase after the invention of moveable type in Europe in the 1450s. [[Martin Luther]]'s German Bible translation was one of the first mass printed works, he used only [[Slash (punctuation)#Line breaks|virgule]], [[full stop]] and less than one percent [[question mark]]s as punctuation. The focus of punctuation still was rhetorical, to aid reading aloud.<ref>[https://ufg.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/fileadmin/phil-fak/aktuelles/2010/fakultaetspreise/slotta.pdf Historische Kommasetzung bei Luther, en: historical use of comma by Luther], Frank Slotta, for Prof Beatrice Primus, Landesprüfungsamt I NRW, 2010.</ref> As explained by writer and editor [[Lynne Truss]], "The rise of printing in the 14th and 15th centuries meant that a standard system of punctuation was urgently required."<ref>{{cite book |title=Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation |url=https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus |url-access=limited |last=Truss |first=Lynne |year=2004 |publisher=Gotham Books |location=New York |isbn=1-59240-087-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus/page/77 77] }}</ref> Printed books, whose letters were uniform, could be read much more rapidly than manuscripts. Rapid reading, or reading aloud, did not allow time to analyze sentence structures. This increased speed led to the greater use and finally standardization of punctuation, which showed the relationships of words with each other: where one sentence ends and another begins, for example.

The introduction of a standard system of punctuation has also been attributed to the Venetian printers [[Aldus Manutius]] and his grandson. They have been credited with popularizing the practice of ending sentences with the [[colon (punctuation)|colon]] or [[full stop]] (period), inventing the [[semicolon]], making occasional use of [[bracket#Parentheses|parentheses]], and creating the modern [[comma (punctuation)|comma]] by lowering the virgule. By 1566, Aldus Manutius the Younger was able to state that the main object of punctuation was the clarification of [[syntax]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation|url= https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus|url-access= limited|last= Truss|first= Lynn|year= 2004|publisher= Gotham Books|location= New York|isbn= 1-59240-087-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus/page/77 77]–78}}</ref>

By the 19th century, punctuation in the Western world had evolved "to classify the marks hierarchically, in terms of weight".<ref name="eatsshootsleave00trus112"/> Cecil Hartley's poem identifies their relative values:
<poem style="margin:1.2em 0 1.5em 3em;">
The stop point out, with truth, the time of pause
A sentence doth require at ev'ry clause.
At ev'ry comma, stop while ''one'' you count;
At semicolon, ''two'' is the amount;
A colon doth require the time of ''three'';
The period ''four'', as learned men agree.<ref>{{cite book |title=Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation |url=https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus |url-access=limited |last=Truss |first=Lynn |year=2004 |publisher=Gotham Books |location=New York |isbn=1-59240-087-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/eatsshootsleave00trus/page/112 112]–113 }}</ref>
</poem>
The use of punctuation was not standardised until after the invention of printing. According to the 1885 edition of ''The American Printer'', the importance of punctuation was noted in various sayings by children, such as:
<poem style="margin:1.2em 0 1.5em 3em;">
[[Charles I of England|Charles the First]] walked and talked
Half an hour after [[Execution of Charles I|his head was cut off]].
</poem>
With a semicolon and a comma added, it reads as follows:
<poem style="margin:1.2em 0 1.5em 3em;">
Charles the First walked and talked;
Half an hour after, his head was cut off.<ref>[[Iona and Peter Opie]] (1943) ''I Saw Esau''.</ref>
</poem>
In a 19th-century manual of [[typography]], Thomas MacKellar writes:
{{Blockquote|Shortly after the invention of printing, the necessity of stops or pauses in sentences for the guidance of the reader produced the colon and full point. In process of time, the comma was added, which was then merely a perpendicular line, proportioned to the body of the letter. These three points were the only ones used until the close of the fifteenth century, when Aldo Manuccio gave a better shape to the comma, and added the semicolon; the comma denoting the shortest pause, the semicolon next, then the colon, and the full point terminating the sentence. The marks of interrogation and admiration were introduced many years after.<ref>{{cite book |title= The American Printer: A Manual of Typography, Containing Practical Directions for Managing all Departments of a Printing Office, As Well as Complete Instructions for Apprentices: With Several Useful Tables, Numerous Schemes for Imposing Forms in Every Variety, Hints to Authors, Etc.|edition= Fifteenth – Revised and Enlarged|last= MacKellar|first= Thomas|year= 1885|publisher= MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan|location= Philadelphia|page=63}}
</ref>}}

===Typewriters and electronic communication===
The introduction of [[electrical telegraphy]] with a limited set of transmission codes<ref>See e.g. [[Morse code]]</ref> and [[typewriter]]s with a limited set of keys influenced punctuation subtly.  For example, [[curved quotes]] and [[apostrophe]]s were all collapsed into two characters (' and ").  The [[hyphen]], [[minus sign]], and dashes of various widths have been collapsed into a single character (-), sometimes repeated to represent a long dash.  The [[space (punctuation)|spaces]] of different widths available to professional typesetters were generally replaced by a single full-character width space, with typefaces [[monospace]]d.  In some cases a typewriter keyboard did not include an exclamation point (!), which could otherwise be constructed by the [[overstrike]] of an apostrophe and a period; the original [[Morse code]] did not have an exclamation point.

These simplifications have been carried forward into digital writing, with [[teleprinter]]s and the [[ASCII]] character set essentially supporting the same characters as typewriters. Treatment of whitespace in [[HTML]] discouraged the practice (in English prose) of putting two full spaces after a full stop, since a single or double space would appear the same on the screen. (Most style guides now discourage double spaces, and some electronic writing tools, including Wikipedia's software, automatically collapse double spaces to single.) The full traditional set of typesetting tools became available with the advent of [[desktop publishing]] and more sophisticated [[word processor]]s. Despite the widespread adoption of character sets like [[Unicode]] that support the punctuation of traditional typesetting, writing forms like [[text messages]] tend to use the simplified ASCII style of punctuation, with the addition of new non-text characters like [[emoji]]. Informal [[text speak]] tends to drop punctuation when not needed, including some ways that would be considered errors in more formal writing.

In the computer era, punctuation characters were recycled for use in [[programming languages]] and [[URL]]s. Due to its use in [[email]] and [[Twitter]] handles, the [[at sign]] (@) has gone from an obscure character mostly used by sellers of bulk commodities (10 pounds @$2.00 per pound), to a very common character in common use for both technical routing and an abbreviation for "at". The [[tilde]] (~), in moveable type only used in combination with vowels, for mechanical reasons ended up as a [[Tilde#Role of mechanical typewriters|separate key on mechanical typewriters]], and like @ it has been put to completely new uses.