Editing Palaeography (section)

=== Accents, punctuation, and division of words ===
[[File:Paragraphos.png|thumb|Variants of [[paragraphos]]]]
{{See also|Punctuation}}
In the book-hand of early papyri, neither accents nor breathings were employed. Their use was established by the beginning of the Roman period, but was sporadic in papyri, where they were used as an aid to understanding, and therefore more frequently in poetry than prose, and in lyrical oftener than in other verse. In the cursive of papyri they are practically unknown, as are marks of punctuation. Punctuation was effected in early papyri, literary and documentary, by spaces, reinforced in the book-hand by the [[paragraphos]], a horizontal stroke under the beginning of the line. The [[Coronis (textual symbol)|coronis]], a more elaborate form of this, marked the beginning of lyrics or the principal sections of a longer work. Punctuation marks, the [[comma]], the high, low and middle points, were established in the book-hand by the Roman period; in early Ptolemaic papyri, a double point ({{angbr|:}}) is found.

In vellum and paper manuscripts, punctuation marks and accents were regularly used from at least the 8th century, though with some differences from modern practice. At no period down to the invention of printing did Greek scribes consistently separate words. The book-hand of papyri aimed at an unbroken succession of letters, except for distinction of sections; in cursive hands, especially where abbreviations were numerous, some tendency to separate words may be recognised, but in reality it was phrases or groups of letters rather than words which were divided. In the later minuscule word-division is much commoner but never became systematic, accents and breathings serving of themselves to indicate the proper division.<ref name="Bell" />