Editing Word divider (section)

== 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 [[Brahmic scripts|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 [[Written Chinese|Chinese]] and [[Japanese writing|Japanese]] are the most widely used scripts consistently written without punctuation to separate words, though other scripts such as [[Thai script|Thai]] and [[Lao script|Lao]] also follow this writing convention. In Classical Chinese, a word and a [[Chinese character|character]] were almost the same thing, so that word dividers would have been superfluous. Although [[Standard Mandarin|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.

[[File:Sample Tuladha Jejeg.png|center|thumb|x50px|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]].

[[Image:Traditional spacing examples from the 1911 Chicago Manual of Style.png|center|thumb|Traditional spacing examples from the 1911 ''Chicago Manual of Style''<ref>{{cite book |title=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 |edition=Third |author=University of Chicago Press |year=1911 |publisher=University of Chicago |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/manualstyleacom00presgoog/page/n115 101] |url=https://archive.org/details/manualstyleacom00presgoog|quote=this line is spaced. }}</ref>]]

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===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 continues with many Indic scripts today (the [[danda]]).

===Interpunct, multiple dots, and hypodiastole===
{| align=right style="border:1px solid #ccc; padding:.3em; margin:1em"
|<span lang="la" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 90%;">{{smallcaps|arma·virvmqve·cano·troiae·qvi·primvs·ab·oris<br>italiam·fato·profvgvs·laviniaqve·venit<br>litora·mvltvm·ille·et·terris·iactatvs·et·alto<br>vi·svpervm·saevae·memorem·ivnonis·ob·iram }}</span><br>
|-
|<span style="font-size: 90%;">The Latin interpunct</span>
|}
[[Image:Ethiopic genesis (ch. 29, v. 11-16), 15th century (The S.S. Teacher's Edition-The Holy Bible - Plate XII, 1).jpg|thumb|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.<ref>(Wingo 1972:16)</ref> [[Greek orthography#Punctuation|Ancient Greek orthography]] used between two and five dots as word separators, as well as the [[hypodiastole]].

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===Different letter forms===
In the modern [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] and [[Arabic alphabet]]s, some letters have distinct forms at the ends and/or beginnings of words. This demarcation is used in addition to spacing.

===Vertical arrangement===
[[File:Urdu couplet.svg|thumb|Nastaʿlīq used for Urdu (written right-to-left)]]
The [[Nastaʿlīq script|Nastaʿlīq]] form of [[Islamic calligraphy]] uses vertical arrangement to separate words. The beginning of each word is written higher than the end of the preceding word, so that a line of text takes on a [[sawtooth wave|sawtooth]] appearance. Nastaliq spread from Persia and today is used for [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]], [[Pashto language|Pashto]], and [[Urdu]].

===Pause===
In [[finger spelling]] and in [[Morse code]], words are separated by a pause.