Jump to content

Quotation mark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from „)

“ ”  " "
‘ ’  ' '
English quotation marks
Other namesquotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, talking marks
« » 「 」
Guillemets CJK brackets

Quotation marks[A] are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the same glyph.[3] Quotation marks have a variety of forms in different languages and in different media.

History

[edit]

The single quotation mark is traced to Ancient Greek practice, adopted and adapted by monastic copyists. Isidore of Seville, in his seventh-century encyclopedia, Etymologiae, described their use of the Greek diplé, a symbol like a right angle bracket:

[13] ⟩ Diple. Hanc scriptores nostri adponunt in libris ecclesiasticorum virorum ad separanda vel [ad] demonstranda testimonia sanctarum Scripturarum.[4][5]

Translation:

[13] ⟩ Diplé. Our copyists place this sign in the books of the people of the Church, to separate or to indicate the quotations drawn from the Holy Scriptures.

The double quotation mark derives from a marginal notation used in fifteenth-century manuscript annotations to indicate a passage of particular importance (not necessarily a quotation); the notation was placed in the outside margin of the page and was repeated alongside each line of the passage.[6] In his edition of the works of Aristotle, which appeared in 1483 or 1484, the Milanese Renaissance humanist Francesco Filelfo marked literal and appropriate quotes with oblique double dashes on the left margin of each line.[7] Until then, literal quotations had been highlighted or not at the author's discretion.[7] Non-verbal loans[clarification needed] were marked on the edge. After the publication of Filelfo's edition, the quotation marks for literal quotations prevailed.[7] During the seventeenth century this treatment became specific to quoted material, and it grew common, especially in Britain, to print quotation marks (now in the modern opening and closing forms) at the beginning and end of the quotation as well as in the margin; the French usage is a remnant of this. In most other languages, including English, the marginal marks dropped out of use in the last years of the eighteenth century. The usage of a pair of marks, opening and closing, at the level of lower case letters was generalized.[6]

Guillemets by the Imprimerie nationale in Bulletin de l'Agence générale des colonies, No. 302, May 1934, showing the usage of a pair of marks, opening and closing, at the level of lower case letters
Clash between the apostrophe and curved quotation marks in a phrase meaning "the crimes of the 'good Samaritans' "

By the nineteenth century, the design and usage began to be specific to each region. In Western Europe the custom became to use the quotation mark pairs with the convexity of each mark aimed outward. In Britain those marks were elevated to the same height as the top of capital letters: “...”.

Clearly distinguishable apostrophe and angular quotation marks.
Blank space (in yellow) provoked by elevated quotation marks; some type designers consider this excessive.[8]

In France, by the end of the nineteenth century, the marks were modified to an angular shape. Some authors claim that the reason for this was a practical one, in order to get a character that was clearly distinguishable from apostrophes, commas, and parentheses. Also, in other scripts, the angular quotation marks are distinguishable from other punctuation characters: the Greek breathing marks, the Armenian emphasis and apostrophe, the Arabic comma, the decimal separator, the thousands separator, etc. Other authors[8][who?] claim that the reason for this was an aesthetic one: the elevated quotation marks created extra white space before and after the word, below the quotation marks. This was considered aesthetically unpleasing, while the in-line quotation marks helped to maintain the typographical color, since the quotation marks had the same height and were aligned with the lower case letters.[6] Nevertheless, while other languages do not insert spaces between the quotation marks and the word(s) quoted, the French usage does insert them, even if they are narrow spaces.

The curved quotation marks ("66–99") usage, “...”, was exported to some non-Latin scripts, notably where there was some English influence, for instance in Native American scripts and Indic scripts.[9][10] On the other hand, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and Ethiopic adopted the French "angular" quotation marks, «...».[citation needed] The angle bracket quotation marks, 《...》, are also a development of the in-line angular quotation marks. These marks are standard in the Hanzi (Chinese 汉字), Hanja (Korean 漢字), and modern Hangul (Korean 한글) scripts. In Chinese, they serve as the standard punctuation for book, album, and other work titles. In South Korea, they are recognized as valid punctuation for indicating such titles. In North Korea, they serve as the standard punctuation for book, album, and other work titles.[11][12][13]

In Central Europe, the practice was to use the quotation mark pairs with the convexity aimed inward. The German tradition preferred the curved quotation marks, the first one at the level of the commas, the second one at the level of the apostrophes: „...“. Alternatively, these marks could be angular and in-line with lower case letters, but still pointing inward: »...«. Some neighboring regions adopted the German curved marks tradition with lower–upper alignment, while some, e.g. Poland, adopted a variant with the convexity of the closing mark aimed rightward like the opening one, „...”.[14]

Sweden (and Finland) chose a convention where the convexity of both marks was aimed to the right but lined up both at the top level: ”...”.

In Eastern Europe,[clarification needed] there was hesitation between the French tradition «...» and the German tradition „...“. The French tradition prevailed in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), whereas the German tradition, or its modified version with the convexity of the closing mark aimed rightward, has become dominant in Southeastern Europe, e.g. in the Balkan countries. In Romania the: „...” version is officially recognized by the Romanian Academy.

In some languages using the angular quotation marks, the usage of the single guillemet, ‹...›, became obsolete, being replaced by double curved ones: “...”, though the single ones still survive, for instance, in Switzerland. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the curved quotation marks, „...“, are used as a secondary level or in handwriting, while the angular marks, «...», are used as the primary level on printed text.

In English

[edit]

In English writing, quotation marks are placed in pairs around a word or phrase to indicate:

  • Quotation or direct speech: Carol said "Go ahead" when I asked her if the launcher was ready.
  • Mention in another work of the title of a short or subsidiary work, such as a chapter or an episode: "Encounter at Farpoint" was the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Scare quotes, used to mean "so-called" or to express sarcasm: The "fresh" bread was all dried up.

In American writing, quotation marks are normally the double kind (the primary style). If quotation marks are used inside another pair of quotation marks, then single quotation marks are used. For example: "Didn't she say 'I like red best' when I asked her wine preferences?" he asked his guests. If another set of quotation marks is nested inside single quotation marks, double quotation marks are used again, and they continue to alternate as necessary (though this is rarely done).

British publishing is regarded as more flexible about whether double or single quotation marks should be used.[15] A tendency to use single quotation marks in British writing is thought to have arisen after the mid-19th century invention of steam-powered presses and the consequent rise of London and New York as distinct, industrialized publishing centers whose publishing houses adhered to separate norms.[16] The King's English in 1908 noted that the prevailing British practice was to use double marks for most purposes, and single ones for quotations within quotations.[17] Different media now follow different conventions in the United Kingdom.

Different varieties and styles of English have different conventions regarding whether terminal punctuation should be written inside or outside the quotation marks. North American printing usually puts full stops and commas (but not colons, semicolons, exclamation or question marks) inside the closing quotation mark, whether it is part of the original quoted material or not.[18][19] Styles elsewhere vary widely and have different rationales for placing it inside or outside, often a matter of house style.

Typographic forms

[edit]

Regarding their appearance, two shape classifications of quotation marks are used in English-language texts:

  • '...' and "..." are known as neutral, vertical, straight, typewriter, dumb, or ASCII quotation marks. The left and right marks are identical. These are the symbols found on typical QWERTY keyboards, although they are sometimes automatically converted to the other type by software.
  • ‘...’ and “...” are known as typographic, curly, curved, book, or smart quotation marks. (The doubled ones are more informally known as "66 and 99".[20][21]) The beginning marks look like commas raised to the ascender line and rotated 180 degrees (and thus known as 'inverted commas'). The ending marks look like commas raised to the ascender line. Curved quotation marks are used mainly in manuscript, printing, and typesetting. Type cases (of any language) generally have the curved quotation mark metal types for the respective language, and may lack the vertical quotation mark metal types. Because most computer keyboards lack keys to enter typographic quotation marks directly, much that is written using word-processing programs has vertical quotation marks. The "smart quotes" feature in some computer software can convert vertical quotation marks to curly ones, although sometimes inappropriately.

The closing or right single quotation mark is identical in form to the apostrophe and similar to the prime symbol. The double quotation mark is identical to the ditto mark in English-language usage. It is also similar to—and often used to represent—the double prime symbol. These all serve different purposes and have distinct Unicode codepoints.

Summary table

[edit]

Other languages have similar conventions to English, but use different symbols or different placement.

Language ISO-639 [22][23] Standard Alternative Spacing Names Notes & references
PrimarySecondaryNotes PrimarySecondaryNotes
Afrikaans af “...” ‘...’ „...” ‚...’ [i] aanhalingsteken (quotation)
Albanian sq „...“ ‘...’ thonjëza (quotes)
Amharic am «...» ‹...› [24][25] “...” ‘...’ [25] ትምህርተ ጥቅስ (timihirite t’ik’isi, quote)
Arabic ar «...» “...” Optional ‏علامات تنصيص‎ (ʻalāmāt tanṣīṣ, quotation marks) [ii]
Armenian hy «...» չակերտներ (chakertner, quotation marks)
Azerbaijani az “...” "..." „...“ 0–1 pt dırnaq işarəsi (fingernail mark)
Basque eu «...» “...” [26] “...” ‘...’ komatxoak
Belarusian be «...» „...“ [27] „...“
Bosnian bs
  • ”...”
  • „...”
 ’...’ »...«
»...« is used only in printed media.
Bulgarian bg „...“
[28][iv] «...»[iii]
[28][iv] кавички (kavichki) (or стандартни кавички, двойни кавички (standartni/dvoyni kavichki) for the main types of quotation marks (also called double quotation mark(s)), and единични кавички, вторични кавички (edinichni/vtorichni kavichki) for the secondary quotation marks (also called single quotation mark(s)). [29]
Catalan ca «...» “...” [iv][v] “...” ‘...’ [iv] none
Chinese, simplified zh
  • “⋯”
  • 『⋯』[vi]
  • ‘⋯’
  • 「⋯」[vi]
 [30] 「⋯」 『⋯』 Fullwidth form
[31]
Chinese, traditional zh_TW
[32][33] “⋯” ‘⋯’ Fullwidth form
[34]
Croatian hr „...” ‘...’ [35][36] »...« [35]
Czech cs „...“ ‚...‘ »...« ›...‹ uvozovky (introduce)
Danish da
  • »...«
  • „...“
  • ›...‹
  • ‚...‘
 [37][38]
  • ”...”
  • “...”
  • ’...’
  • ‘...’
 [39]
  • The standard forms are most common in literature and some newspapers. The alternative forms are more common in everyday use, due to being easily available on keyboards.
  • The Danish Language Council calls the specific shape of quotation marks primarily a question of typography, and only recommend that they should be hard to confuse for other punctuation marks and be applied consistently within a text.[38]
Dutch nl “...” ‘...’ „...” ‚...’ [40]
  • Double citation marks are only used in literal citations
  • The sequence when using primary and secondary level is a recommendation, not a rule.
English: UK, Australia, New Zealand en_GB, en_AU, en_NZ ‘...’ “...” [41][viii] “...” ‘...’ 1–2 pt Quotation marks, double quotes, quotes, inverted commas, speech marks
  • Usage of single or double as primary varies across English varieties.[42]
English: US, Canada, South Africa en_US, en_CA, en_ZA “...” ‘...’ [viii]
Esperanto eo “...” ‘...’ [ix]
  • «...»
  • „...“
  • ‹...›
  • ‚...‘
 citiloj (lit. quoting tools)
Estonian et „...“ «...»
Filipino tl_PH “...” ‘...’ [43][viii] [43] panipi
Finnish fi ”...” ’...’ [44] »...» ’...’ [44] lainausmerkit (citation marks)
French fr « ... » « ... »[a] [iv] ‹ ... › [iv] [45] guillemets (William)
“...”[d] “...” ‘...’ none
French, Switzerland[e] fr_CH «...» ‹...›
Galician gl «...» “...” [47] “...” ‘...’ [47]
Georgian ka „...“ none none ბრჭყალები (brč’q’alebi, claws)
German de „...“ ‚...‘ »...« ›...‹
German, Switzerland; Swiss German[e] de_CH «...» ‹...› „...“ ‚...‘
Greek el «...»
  • “...”
  • ‟...”[f]
 [50][51][52] εισαγωγικά (eisagogiká, introductory marks)
Hebrew he ”...„ ’...‚ [53] "..." '...' מֵירְכָאוֹת (merkha'ot) Not to be confused with גֵּרְשַׁיִם (gershayim, double geresh typographical mark).[ii]
Hindi hi “...” ‘...’ [54] उद्धरण चिह्न (uddharan chihn)
Hungarian hu „...” »...« [iv]
The three levels of Hungarian quotation: „...»...’...’...«...”[55]
Icelandic is „...“ ‚...‘

or
‘...’

 [56] tilvitnunarmerki

gæsalappir (‘goose feet’)
Ido io « ... » ‘ ... ’ cito-hoketi (quotation hooks)
Indonesian id “...” ‘...’ [57] ”...” ’...’ tanda kutip, tanda petik (quote mark) Usage of alternative marks seen among the literature by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Indonesian.
Interlingua ia “...” ‘...’ [ix] virgulettas (small commas)
Irish ga “...” ‘...’ 1–2 pt liamóg (William)
Italian it «...» “...” [58] “...” ‘...’ [58] virgolette (small commas)
Japanese ja
Fullwidth form
Occasionally, other symbols, such as “...”, are used stylistically. Quotes are almost always followed by particle と.
Kazakh kk «...» „...“ “...” тырнақша (tyrnaqşa) [59]
Karakalpak kaa «...» “...” tırnaqsha (tırnaqsha)
Khmer km «...» [g] “...” សញ្ញាសម្រង់ (saññā samráng, quotation mark)
Korean, North Korea ko_KP 《...》 〈...〉
Korean, South Korea ko_KR “...”[60] ‘...’[60] 『...』[vi] 「...」[vi]
  • “...” 쌍따옴표 (ssang-ttaompyo, double quotation mark)
  • ‘...’ 따옴표 (ttaompyo, quotation mark)
  • 「...」 낫표 (natpyo, sickle symbol)
  • 『...』 겹낫표 (gyeomnatpyo, double sickle symbol)
Lao lo “...” ວົງຢືມ (vong yum)
Latvian lv
  • “...”
  • „...”
 «...»