Quotation mark: Difference between revisions

{{Hatnote|The symbol {{big| {{char|"}} }} redirects here. For other uses, see [[" (disambiguation)]] and [[Quotation mark (disambiguation)]]}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=MayMarch 20202024}}

{{Infobox punctuation mark|mark={{smaller|{{serif|“&#8239nbsp;”&nbsp;&nbsp;"&#8239nbsp;"<br />‘&#8239nbsp;’&nbsp;&nbsp;<nowiki>'</nowiki>&#8239nbsp;<nowiki>'</nowiki>}}}}

{{lang|la|[13] ⟩ Diple. Hanc scriptores nostri adponunt in libris ecclesiasticorum virorum ad separanda vel [ad] demonstranda testimonia sanctarum Scripturarum.}}<ref>{{cite magazine |url= https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/deux-points-et-guillemets-le-proces-verbal_779087.html |title=Deux-points et guillemets: Le 'procès-verbal' |first=Pedro |last=Uribe Echeverria |date=7 August 2009 |access-date=5 June 2020 |work=[[L'Express]] |lang=fr |quote=Dans le chapitre sur les symboles graphiques, Isidore évoque la diplè (chevron, en grec) : "' > Diplè : nos copistes placent ce signe dans les livres des gens d'Eglise pour séparer ou pour signaler les citations tirées des Saintes Ecritures.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite webbook |title=Etymologiarum libri XX/Liber I |url= https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Etymologiarum_libri_XX/Liber_I#XXI.<!--Yes, the trailing "." is part of the URL.--> |access-date=28 October 2020 |websitevia=la.Wikisource.org |archive-date=31 October 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201031113634/https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Etymologiarum_libri_XX/Liber_I#XXI.<!--Yes, the trailing "." is part of the URL.--> |url-status=live}}</ref>

|[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 Scripture]]s.

[[File:Quotation & apostrophe.png|thumb|Clash between the apostrophe and curved quotation marks in a phrase meaning “the crimes of the ‘good Samaritans’&#x202F;{{thinsp}}”]]

In [[French Third Republic|France]], by the end of the nineteenth century, the marks were modified to an angular shape: {{char|«…»}}. Some authors<ref name="design et typo">{{cite web|url= http://paris.blog.lemonde.fr/2007/10/14/guillemets-anglais-ou-guillemets-francais-un-choix-graphique-aussi/|title=Guillemets anglais ou guillemets français – Un choix graphique, aussi|first=Peter|last=Gabor|website=design et typo|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071016042122/http://paris.blog.lemonde.fr/2007/10/14/guillemets-anglais-ou-guillemets-francais-un-choix-graphique-aussi/|archive-date=16 October 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> claim that the reason for this was a practical one, in order to get a character that was clearly distinguishable from the apostrophes, the commas, and the parentheses. Also, in other scripts, the angular quotation marks are distinguishable from other punctuation characters: the [[Greek diacritics#Breathings|Greek breathing marks]], the [[Armenian alphabet#Punctuation|Armenian emphasis and apostrophe]], the Arabic [[Comma#In other languages|comma]], the [[Decimal mark#Other numeral systems|decimal separator]], the [[thousands separator]], etc. Other authors<ref name="design et typo" /> claim that the reason for this was an aesthetic one.: Thethe elevated quotation marks created an extra white space before and after the word, whichbelow the quotation marks. This was considered aesthetically unpleasing, while the in-line quotation marks helped to maintain the [[Type color|typographical color]], since the quotation marks had the same height and were aligned with the lower case letters.<ref name="guilles" /> Nevertheless, while other languages do not insert a spacespaces between the quotation marks and the word(s) quoted, the French usage does insert them, even if itthey is aare narrow spacespaces.

The ''curved'' quotation marks ("66-9966–99") usage, {{char|“…”}}, was exported to some non-Latin scripts, notably where there was some [[English language|English]] influence, for instance in [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American]] scripts<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daniels |first=Peter T. |url= https://books.google.fr/books?id=ospMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA589&lpg=PA589&dq=punctuation+in+Cherokee&source=bl&ots=9dJwmkgX8y&sig=7r_uEB9cNnhxPvSGKYUbaisb4ms&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO26u4subdAhWszIUKHZ5uBMEQ6AEwEnoECFEQAQ#v=onepage&q=punctuation%20in%20Cherokee&f=false |title=The World's Writing Systems |last2=Bright |first2=William |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195079937 |pages=589}}</ref> and [[Brahmic scripts|Indic scripts]].<ref name="Deccan-Kelkar">{{cite journal |last1=Kelkar |first1=Ashok R. |title=Punctuation and other marks in marathi writing : a functional analysis |journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute |date=31 January 1990 |volume=50 |pages=263–75 |publisher=Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute ([[deemed university]]) |location=[[Pune, India]]|issn=0045-9801 |oclc=564132924|jstor=42931389}}</ref> <!-- See [[{{TALKPAGENAME}}#Indic quotation mark direction]] --> On the other hand, [[Greek script|Greek]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], [[Arabic script|Arabic]] and [[Ethiopic script|Ethiopic]] adopted the French "angular" quotation marks, {{char|«…»}}. The [[Far East]] angle bracket quotation marks, {{char|《…》}}, are also a development of the in-line angular quotation marks.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In [[Central Europe]], the practice was to use the quotation mark pairs with the convexity aimed ''inward.'' The [[German language|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: {{char|„…“}}. Alternatively, these marks could be angular and in-line with lower case letters, but still pointing inward: {{char|»…«}}. 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, {{char|„…”}}.

The reemergence of '''single quotation marks''', {{char|‘…’}}, around 1800 came about as a means of indicating a secondary level of quotation.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} In some languages using the angular quotation marks, the usage of the single guillemet, {{char|‹…›}}, became obsolete, being replaced by double curved ones: {{char|“…”}}, though the single ones still survive, for instance, in Switzerland. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the curved quotation marks, {{char|„…“}}, are used as a secondary level or in handwriting, while the angular marks, {{char|«…»}}, are used as the primary level on printed text.

| {{serif|{{huge|«“{{color|silver|…}}»”}}}}

| {{serif|{{huge|„"{{color|silver|…}}“"}}}}

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹃『{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹄』}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}}}

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹁「{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹂」}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}}}

* Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese agree on the names of the vertical rectangle quotation marks ({{Css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;|﹁「{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹂」}}and {{Css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;|﹃『{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹄』}}) but disagree on which pair being the primary one.

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹁「{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹂」}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}}}

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹃『{{color|silver|︙⋯}}﹄』}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}}}

| {{serif|{{huge|„{{color|silver|…}}“”}}}}

| {{serif|{{huge|‚’{{color|silver|…}}‘’}}}}

| {{ plainlist|

* {{serif|„{{color|silver|…}}“”}} and {{serif|»{{color|silver|…}}«}} {{wikt-lang|hr|navodnici}} (quotation marks)

* {{serif|‚’{{color|silver|…}}‘’}} {{wikt-lang|hr|polunavodnici}} (single quotes)

| {{serif|{{huge|,‚{{color|silver|…}}’}}}}

| {{serif|{{huge|{{lang|he|”{{color|silver|…}}”„|rtl=yes|italic=no}}}}}}

| {{serif|{{huge|{{lang|he|’{{color|silver|…}}’‚|rtl=yes|italic=no}}}}}}

| <ref name="he-1">{{Cite web |title=הפיסוק |url= http://hebrew-academy.org.il/topic/hahlatot/punctuation/ |access-date=12 December 2023 |website=האקדמיה ללשון העברית |archive-date=17 January 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160117025355/http://hebrew-academy.org.il/topic/hahlatot/punctuation/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

| {{wikt-lang|is|gæsalappir}} (goose‘goose feetfeet’)

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹁「{{color|silver|︙…}}﹂」}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}}}

* {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹃『{{color|silver|︙…}}﹄』}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}

| {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle|{{huge|﹃『{{color|silver|︙…}}﹄』}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}

| {{css-style|writing-mode:vertical-rl;vertical-align:middle;|{{huge|﹁「{{color|silver|︙…}}﹂」}}}}{{efn-lr|group=summary|name=vertical}}

* {{wikt-lang|pt|aspas simples}} (simplesingle quotation marks)

[[French language|French]] uses angle quotation marks ([[guillemet]]s, or ''duck-foot quotes''), adding a 'quarter-em space'{{efn|{{unichar|2005|Four-Per-Em Space|nlink=Space (punctuation)|html=}}}} within the quotes. ManyWith peopleproper nowlocalization, computers automatically add the proper spacing. When localization is not available, many people use a [[non-breaking space]] between the quotation mark and the nearest word inside it,{{cn|date=February 2024}} because the difference between a non-breaking space and a [[Whitespace character#Unicode|four-per-em space]] is virtually imperceptible, many [[computer fonts]] do not include a quarter-em space, and the Unicode quarter-em space is [[Line wrap and word wrap|breakable]]. Even more commonly, many people just put a normal (breaking) space inside the quotation marks{{cn|date=February 2024}} because the non-breaking space cannot be accessed easily from the keyboard; furthermore, manyor arebecause simplythey are not aware of this typographical refinement. Using a breakable space of any kind often results in a quotation mark appearing alone at the beginning of a line, since the quotation mark is erroneously treated as an independent word.

On several French news sites such as ''[[Libération]]'', ''[[Les Échos (France)|Les Échos]]'' orand ''[[Le Figaro]]'', no space is used inside the quotation marks. This parallels theirdo usagenot inadd othermanual languagesspacing, e.g.leaving [[Catalanit language|Catalan]],up [[Polishto language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]],localization and [[Ukrainianthe language|Ukrainian]],browser andto alsospace matchesthe [[Swissguillemets Standardproperly. German|German]], [[Swiss French|French]] and [[Swiss Italian|Italian]] as they are written in [[Switzerland]]:

| {{serif|{{huge|«&#x202F;{{thinsp}}{{color|silver|A}}&#x202F;{{thinsp}}»}}}}<!--HTML hex entities used for transparency; literals work equally well-->

| {{serif|{{huge|‹&#x202F;{{thinsp}}{{color|silver|A}}&#x202F;{{thinsp}}›}}}}<!--HTML hex entities used for transparency; literals work equally well.-->

Initially, the French guillemet charactersguillemets were not angle shaped but also used the comma (6/9) shape.{{cn|date=August 2024}} They were different from English quotes because they were standing (like today's guillemets) ''on'' the baseline (like lowercase letters), not raised above it (like apostrophes and English quotation marks) or hanging below it (like commas). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, this shape evolved to look like <small>{{char|((}}</small>&nbsp;small parentheses&nbsp;<small>{{char|))}}</small>. The angle shape was introduced later to make them easier to distinguish from apostrophes, commas and parentheses in handwritten manuscripts submitted to publishers. [[Unicode]] currently does not provide alternate codes for these 6/9 guillemets on the baseline, as they are considered to be form variants of guillemets, implemented in older French typography (such as the [[Didot (typeface)|Didot font]] design). With this older style there was also not necessarily any distinction of shape between the opening and closing guillemets; both often pointed to the right (as today's French closing guillemets do).{{cn|date=August 2024}}

{{lang|fr|« C’est une belle journée pour les Montréalais, soutient le ministre. Ces investissements stimuleront la croissance économique. »|italic=unsetset}}<br />

“This"This is a great day for Montrealers{{char|”}}", the minister maintained. {{char|“}}"These investments will stimulate economic growth.”"

When quotations are nested, doublethe andnested thenparts singleuse English-style quotation marks, aredouble usedand then (if necessary) single: {{char|«…“…‘…’…”…»}}.

| Hungarian ''unpaired'' quotes signifying "meaning of the preceding term"

In Israel, the originaltraditional practice wasin toprinting useand modifiedhandwriting German-styleis to use „low-high” quote marks.<ref thoughname="he-1" /> Since the American2000s, stylethe "quoteplain marks"quotes washave alsobecome more common,.{{citation especiallyneeded|date=September in2024}} books;The however,2013 sincerevision of the 1990sSI-1452 standard for [[Hebrew keyboard]], American-styleavailable hassince become2012 thein standard.Windows (Note8 thatand Hebrewin isdesktop writtenLinux fromsystems, rightsupports toboth systems, as does the [[Gboard]] keyboard for touchscreen leftdevices.)

In [[Brazil]], angular quotation marks are rare, and curved quotation marks ({{notatypo|{{serif|“quote”}} and {{serif|‘quote’}}}}) are almost always used. An example of this can be seen in the difference between a [[List of QWERTY keyboard language variants #Portugal|Portuguese keyboard]] (which has a key for {{char|«}} and {{char|»}}) and a [[List of QWERTY keyboard language variants #Brazil|Brazilian keyboard]].

==={{<span class="anchor|" id="CJK quotation marks|"></span><span class="anchor" id="Chinese, Japanese and Korean quotation marks}}"></span>Chinese, Japanese and Korean===

Corner brackets are well-suited for [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], and [[Korean language|Korean]] languages, whichbecause arethey written in bothaccommodate [[Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts|vertical and horizontal orientationswriting]] equally well. China, South Korea, and Japan all use corner brackets when writing vertically. Usage differs when writing horizontally:

* In [[Mainlandmainland China]], English-style quotes (full width “”“ ”) are official and prevalent; corner brackets are rare today. The Unicode codepointscode points used are the English quotes (rendered as fullwidth by the font), not the fullwidth forms.

* In [[Taiwan]], [[Hong Kong]] and [[Macau]], where [[Traditional Chinesetraditional characters|Traditional Chinese]] isare used, corner brackets are prevalent, although English-style quotes are also used.

WhiteWhen corner brackets are being used tofor markquotations, quote-within-quote segments inare casemarked cornerwith bracketswhite arecorner usedbrackets.

In [[Finnish language|Finnish]], on the other hand, the beginning of a reporting clause is marked only by the punctuation already existing in the sentence, or (if there was none) by adding a comma. When a quote continues after the reporting clause, the clause also ends with a comma, and the continuation begins with another dash:<ref>{{cite book |title=Kieliopas |last=Itkonen |first=Terho |date=1997 |publisher=Kirjayhtymä |location=Helsinki |isbn=9789512642991 |page=22}}</ref>

The [[Unicode]] standard introduced a separate character {{unichar|2015|HORIZONTAL BAR}} to be used as a quotation dash. It may be the same length as an em-dash, which is often used instead. Some software will insertallow a line break after an ordinary em-dash, but notprevent it after a quotation dash. Both are displayed in the following table.

* Microsoft followed the example of IBM in its character set and keyboard design. Curved quotation marks were implemented later in [[Windows code page|Windows character sets]], but most Microsoft computer keyboards<ref>{{cite web |url= https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/windows-keyboard-layouts |title=Windows Keyboard Layouts |website=Microsoft Docs |date=4 January 2017 |access-date=22 October 2019 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220526090150/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/windows-keyboard-layouts |url-status=live}}</ref> do not have a dedicated key for the curved quotation mark characters. On keyboards with the {{keypress|Alt Gr}} key or both the {{keypress|Alt}} key and the [[numeric keypad]], they are accessible through a series of keystrokes that involve these keys.{{efn|Using the [[numeric keypad]], {{keypress|Alt|0}}{{keypress|1|4|5|chain=}} through {{keypress|Alt|0}}{{keypress|1|4|8|chain=}} yield, respectively, {{char|‘}}, {{char|’}}, {{char|“}}, and {{char|”}}.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://fsymbols.com/keyboard/windows/alt-codes/list/|title=Alt codes list ☺♥♪ keyboard symbols|website=fsymbols.com|last=Méñshykov|first=Ihor|access-date=June 8, June 2020}}</ref>}} Also, techniques using [[#Unicode code point table|their Unicode code points]] are available; see [[Unicode input#Hexadecimal code input|Unicode input]].

The style of quoting known as [[Usenet quoting]] uses the [[greater-than sign]], {{char|>}} prepended to a line of text to mark it as a quote. This convention was later standardized in [https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3676.txt{{IETF RFC |3676]}}, and was adopted subsequently by many email clients when automatically including quoted text from previous messages (in [[plain text]] mode).

In Unicode, 30 characters are marked <code>Quotation Mark=Yes</code> by [[Unicode character property|character property]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/PropList.txt |title=Unicode 1516.10 UCD: PropList.txt |date=1 August 20232024-05-31 |access-date=12 September 2023 |archive2024-date=11 March 2018 |archive09-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180311180610/http://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/PropList.txt |url-status=live16}}</ref> They all have general category "Punctuation", and a subcategory Open, Close, Initial, Final or Other (<code>Ps, Pe, Pi, Pf, Po</code>). Several other Unicode characters with quotation mark semantics lack the character property.

! colspan=52 | Quotation marks in Unicode <small>([[Unicode character property|Character property]] "Quotation_Mark"=Yes)</small>

! Glyph !!Code!!Unicode name!!HTMLCharacter!!Comments

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge0022|"}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge0027|'}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge00AB |«}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge00BB |»}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge2018 |‘}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge2019 |size=180%|nlink=Right single quotation mark|’}}html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201A|size=180%|‚}}html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201B |size=180%|‛}}html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201C |“}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201D|”}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201E|„}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge201F|‟}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge2039|‹}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge203A |›}}size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{serifunichar|{{huge2E42|⹂}}size=180%|html=}}

! colspan=52 | Quotation marks in [[Miscellaneous Technical]]

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|⌜231C |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|⌝231D |size=180%|html=}}

! colspan=52 | Quotation marks in [[dingbat]]s

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|❛275B |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|❜275C ||size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|❝275D |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|❞275E |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|🙶1F676 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|🙷1F677 ||size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|🙸1F678|size=180%|html=}}

! colspan=52 | Quotation marks in [[Braille Patterns]]

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|⠴2826|size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|⠦2834|size=180%|html=}}

! colspan=52 | Quotation marks in [[CJK characters|Chinese, Japanese, and Korean]] (CJK)

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|「300C|size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|」300D |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|『300E|size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|』300F|size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|〝301D |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|〞301E |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|〟301F |size=180%|html=}}

! colspan=52 | Alternate encodings

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|﹁FE41 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|﹂FE42 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|﹃FE43 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|﹄FE44 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|＂FF02 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|＇FF07 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|｢FF62 |size=180%|html=}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{hugeunichar|｣FF63|size=180%|html=}}

{{notelist-ua|35em}}

{{notelist|35em}}