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A hyphenation algorithm is a set of rules, especially one codified for implementation in a computer program, that decides at which points a word can be broken over two lines with a hyphen. For example, a hyphenation algorithm might decide that impeachment can be broken as impeach-ment or im-peachment but not impe-achment .
Non-English vernacular names, when relevant to include, are handled like any other non-English terms: italicized as such, and capitalized only if the rules of the native language require it. Non-English names that have become English-assimilated are treated as English (ayahuasca, okapi).
Versions of non-acronym abbreviations that do not end in full points (periods) are more common in British than North American English and are always [b] abbreviations that compress a word while retaining its first and last letters (i.e., contractions: Dr, St, Revd) rather than truncation abbreviations (Prof., Co.). That said, US military ranks ...
On the other hand, "non-phonemic" [1] or "newspaper" [2] systems, commonly used in newspapers and other non-technical writings, avoid diacritics and literally "respell" words making use of well-known English words and spelling conventions, even though the resulting system may not have a one-to-one mapping between symbols and sounds.
Wikipedia uses four: the hyphen (sometimes called the hyphen-minus), the minus sign, the en dash, and the em dash. Hyphen (- or -, MOS:HYPHEN; known as the hyphen-minus in ASCII and Unicode) are used in many ways on Wikipedia. They are the only short, horizontal dash-like character available as a separate key on most keyboards. They are used:
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Fractions as modifiers are hyphenated: "two-thirds majority", but if numerator or denominator are already hyphenated, the fraction itself does not take a hyphen: "a thirty-three thousandth part". (Fractions used as nouns have no hyphens: "I ate two thirds of the pie.") Comparatives and superlatives in compound adjectives also take hyphens:
This essay explains use of the non-breaking hyphen character ā, U+2011, coded by ‑ or ‑.Once displayed in a page, the non-breaking hyphen can be copied into words, or abbreviations, so they will not wrap at the hyphen character, such as an interstate highway symbol, "Iā94", which would always wrap to the next line as a whole word.