Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Two punctuation marks are used in Greek texts which are not found in English: the colon, which consists of a dot raised above the line ( · ) and the Greek question mark, which looks like the English semicolon ( ; ).
The form also lacks punctuation, diacritics, or distinguished letter case. In the West, the oldest Greek and Latin inscriptions used word dividers to separate words in sentences; however, Classical Greek and late Classical Latin both employed scriptio continua as the norm. [1] [2] The scriptio continua is also known as Latin skeleton script.
Various paragraphoi.. A paragraphos (Ancient Greek: παράγραφος, parágraphos, from para-, 'beside', and graphein, 'to write') was a mark in ancient Greek punctuation, marking a division in a text (as between speakers in a dialogue or drama) or drawing the reader's attention to another division mark, such as the two dot punctuation mark ⁚ (used as an obelism).
Punctuation marks, especially spacing, were not needed in logographic or syllabic (such as 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.
Pages in category "Ancient Greek punctuation" The following 14 pages are in this category, out of 14 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. A.
In addition to no punctuation, many original source texts in ancient Greek were written as an unbroken stream of letters, with no separation between words. The hypodiastole, a curved, comma-like mark ⸒, was used to disambiguate certain homonyms and marked the word-break in a sequence of letters that should be understood as two separate words.
The orthography of the Greek language ultimately has its roots in the adoption of the Greek alphabet in the 9th century BC. Some time prior to that, one early form of Greek, Mycenaean, was written in Linear B, although there was a lapse of several centuries (the Greek Dark Ages) between the time Mycenaean stopped being written and the time when the Greek alphabet came into use.
Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. [56] Boustrophedon, or bi-directional text, was also used in Ancient Greek.