Editing Scriptio continua (section)

==Decline==
Over time, the current system of rapid [[silent reading]] for information replaced the older, slower, and more dramatic performance-based reading,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lanham |first=Richard A. |title=The economics of attention: style and substance in the age of information |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-226-46882-2}}</ref>{{RP|113–115}} and word dividers and punctuation became more beneficial to text.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Burnley |first=David |date=1995 |title=Scribes and Hypertext |journal=The Yearbook of English Studies |volume=25 |pages=41–62 |doi=10.2307/3508817 |jstor=3508817}}</ref> Though [[paleographer]]s disagree about the chronological decline of {{lang|la|scriptio continua}} throughout the world, it is generally accepted that the addition of spaces first appeared in Irish and Anglo-Saxon Bibles and Gospels from the seventh and eighth centuries.<ref name="Saenger-1997">{{Cite book |last=Saenger |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3vZaFoaa3EC&q=%22short-term+memory+of+word+order%22&pg=PA17 |title=Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-804-74016-6 |pages=16–17}}</ref>{{RP|21}}<!--ORIG: <ref name="Saenger-1997">Saenger, Paul (1997) ''Space between words: the origins of silent reading'', Stanford University Press, Stanford, California</ref> --> Subsequently, an increasing number of European texts adopted conventional spacing, and within the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all European texts were written with word separation.<ref name=Saenger-1997/>{{RP|120–121}}

When word separation became the standard system, it was seen as a simplification of Roman culture because it undermined the metric and rhythmic fluency generated through {{lang|la|scriptio continua}}. In contrast, paleographers today identify the extinction of {{lang|la|scriptio continua}} as a critical factor in augmenting the widespread absorption of knowledge in the pre-Modern Era. By saving the reader the taxing process of interpreting pauses and breaks, the inclusion of spaces enables the brain to comprehend written text more rapidly. Furthermore, the brain has a greater capacity to profoundly synthesize text and commit a greater portion of information to memory.<ref name=Saenger-1997/>{{RP|16–17}}

{{lang|la|Scriptio continua}} is still in use in [[Thai script]], other Southeast Asian [[abugida]]s: ([[Burmese alphabet|Burmese]], [[Lao alphabet|Lao]], [[Khmer alphabet|Khmer]], [[Javanese script|Javanese]], [[Balinese script|Balinese]], [[Sundanese script]]), and in languages that use [[Chinese character]]s ([[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]). However, modern [[vernacular Chinese]] differentiates itself from ancient {{lang|la|scriptio continua}} through its use of punctuation, although this method of separation was borrowed from the West only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Before this, the only forms of punctuation found in Chinese writings were marks to denote quotes, proper nouns, and emphasis. Modern [[Tibetic languages]] also employ a form of {{lang|la|scriptio continua}}; while they punctuate syllables, they do not use spacing between units of meaning.