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Iteration marks are characters or punctuation marks that represent a duplicated character or word.


Chinese

In Chinese, (usually appearing as ) or is used in casual writing to represent a doubled character. However, it is not used in formal writing anymore, and it never appeared in printed matter. In a tabulated table or list, vertical repetition can be represented by a ditto mark ().


History

Iteration marks have been occasionally used for more than two thousand years in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. The example image shows an inscription in
bronze script Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, are writing in a variety of Chinese writing, Chinese scripts on Chinese ritual bronzes, ritual bronzes such as ''zhōng'' bell (instrument)#Ancient Chin ...
, a variety of formal writing dating to the
Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
, that ends with , where the small ("two") is used as iteration marks in the phrase ("descendants to use and to treasure").


Malayo-Polynesian languages

In Filipino, Indonesian, and Malay, words that are repeated can be shortened with the use of numeral "2". For example, the Malay ("words", from single ) can be shortened to , and ("to walk around", from single ) can be shortened to . The usage of "2" can be also replaced with superscript "" (e.g. for ). The sign may also be used for reduplicated compound words with slight sound changes, for example for ("commotion"). Suffixes may be added after "2", for example in the word ("Western in nature", from the basic word ("West") with the prefix and suffix ). The use of this mark dates back to the time when these languages were written with
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and th ...
, specifically the Jawi or Pegon varieties. Using the Arabic numeral , words such as (, butterfly) can be shortened to . The use of Arabic numeral was also adapted to several
Brahmi Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...
derived scripts of the Malay archipelago, notably Javanese, Sundanese, Lontara, and Makassaran. As the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
was introduced to the region, the Western-style Arabic numeral "2" came to be use for latin-based orthography. The use of "2" as an iteration mark was official in Indonesia up to 1972, as part of the Republican Spelling System. Its usage was discouraged when the
Enhanced Indonesian Spelling System The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan, EYD) is the spelling system used for the Indonesian language. History The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indone ...
was adopted, and even though it commonly found in handwriting or old signage, it is considered to be inappropriate for formal writing and documents.


Japanese

Japanese has various iteration marks for its three
writing systems A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable f ...
, namely
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...
,
hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contras ...
, and
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
, but only the (horizontal) kanji iteration mark () is commonly used today. In Japanese, iteration marks (, , , or ) are used to represent a duplicated character representing the same
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
. For example, , "people", is usually written , using the kanji for with an iteration mark, , rather than , using the same kanji twice. The use of two kanji in place of an iteration mark is allowed, and in simple cases may be used due to being easier to write. In contrast, while is written with the iteration mark, as the morpheme is duplicated, is written with the character duplicated, because it represents different morphemes ( and ). Further, while can in principle be written (confusingly) as , cannot be written as , since that would imply repetition of the sound as well as the character. In potentially confusing examples such as this, readings can be disambiguated by writing words out in hiragana, so is often found as or even rather than . Sound changes can occur in duplication, which is not reflected in writing; examples include and being pronounced () or and being pronounced (
gemination In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
), though this is also pronounced .


Kanji

The formal name of the kanji repetition symbol () is but is sometimes called because it looks like the katakana and . This symbol originates from a simplified form of the character , a variant of written in the grass script style. Although Japanese kanji iteration marks are borrowed from Chinese, the grammatical function of duplication differs, as do the conventions on the use of these characters. While Japanese does not have a grammatical
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
form ''per se'', some kanji can be reduplicated to indicate plurality (as a collective noun, not many individuals). This differs from Chinese, which normally repeats characters only for the purposes of adding emphasis, although there are some exceptions (e.g., , , "person"; , , "everybody"). *; *; However, for some words duplication may alter the meaning: *; *; *; Using instead of repeating kanji is usually the preferred form, with two restrictions: * the reading must be the same, possibly with sound change (as above), and * the repetition must be within a single word. When the reading is different, the second kanji is often simply written out to avoid confusion. Examples of such include: * * * The repetition mark is not used in every case where two identical characters appear side by side, but only where the repetition itself is etymologically significant—when the repetition is part of a single
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
(discrete word). Where a character ends up appearing twice as part of a compound, it is usually written out in full: *, from + ("democracy" + "principle"); the abbreviated is only occasionally seen. One notable exception is in signs for – the name of neighborhoods often end in , which is then suffixed with yielding , which is then informally abbreviated to , despite the word break. Similarly, in certain Chinese borrowings, it is generally preferred to write out both characters, as in ( Chinese multiplication table) or (
dan dan noodles Dandan noodles or ''dandanmian'' (), literally "carrying-pole noodles", is a noodle dish originating from Chinese Sichuan cuisine. It consists of a spicy sauce usually containing preserved vegetables (often including ''zha cai'' (榨菜), lower en ...
), though in practice is often used. In vertical writing, the character (
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
U+303B), a cursive derivative of ("two", as in Chinese, above), can be employed instead, although this is increasingly rare.


Kana

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters ( kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most ...
uses different iteration marks; one for hiragana, , and one for katakana, . The hiragana iteration mark is seen in some personal names like or , and it forms part of the formal name of the car company . Unlike the kanji iteration marks, which do not reflect sound changes, kana iteration marks closely reflect sound, and the kana iteration marks can be combined with the voicing mark to indicate that the repeated syllable should be voiced, for example . If the first syllable is already voiced, for example , the voiced repetition mark still needs to be used: rather than , which would be read as . While widespread in old Japanese texts, the kana iteration marks are generally not used in modern Japanese outside proper names, though they may appear in informal handwritten texts.


Repeating multiple characters

In addition to the single-character iteration marks, there are also two-character-sized repeat marks, which are used to repeat two or more characters. They are used in vertical writing only, and they are effectively obsolete in modern Japanese. The vertical kana repeat marks (unvoiced) and (voiced) resemble the hiragana character , giving them their name, . They stretch to fill the space typically occupied by two characters, but may indicate a repetition of more than two characters—they indicate that the preceding word or phrase be repeated. For example, the duplicated phrase may be repeated as —note that here it repeats four characters. If a (voiced mark) is added, it applies to the first sound of the repeated word; this is written as . For example, could be written horizontally as ; the voiced iteration mark only applies to the first sound . In addition to the single-character representations and ,
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
provides the half-character versions , and , which can be stacked to render both voiced and unvoiced repeat marks: As support for these is limited, the ordinary forward slash and backward slash are occasionally used as substitutes. Alternatively, multiple single-character iteration marks can be used, as in or . This practice is also uncommon in modern writing, though it is occasionally seen in horizontal writing as a substitute for the vertical repeat mark. Unlike the single-kana iteration mark, if the first kana is voiced, the unvoiced version alone will repeat the voiced sound. Further, if is present, then no iteration mark should be used, as in . This is prescribed by the Japanese Ministry of Education in its 1981 Cabinet notification prescribes, rule #6.


Nuosu

In the
Nuosu language Nuosu or Nosu (, transcribed as ), also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language () and, as such, is the only one tau ...
, is used to represent a doubled sound, for example , . It is used in all forms of writing.


Tangut

In Tangut manuscripts the sign is sometimes used to represent a doubled character; this sign does not occur in printed texts. In
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
this character is , in the
Ideographic Symbols and Punctuation Ideographic Symbols and Punctuation is a Unicode block containing symbols and punctuation marks used by ideographic scripts such as Tangut and Nüshu. History The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of definin ...
block.


Egyptian hieroglyphs

In
Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1, ...
, the signs: zp:Z1*Z1   —   , literally meaning "two times", repeat the previous sign or word.


Khmer, Thai and Lao

In Khmer, () as for Thai, () and Lao, () represent a repeated syllable where as it besides the word. This used to be written as numeral two () and the form changed over time. A repeated word could be used either, to demonstrate plurality, to emphasize or to soften the meaning of the original word.


Ditto mark

In
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, Spanish,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, Italian,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, Portuguese, Czech, Polish and Turkish lists, the ditto mark (″) represents a word repeated from the equivalent position in the line above it; or an evenly-spaced row of ditto marks represents any number of words repeated from above. For example: * Two pounds of lettuce * Three   ″      ″ tomatoes * Four     ″      ″ onions * One pound  ″ carrots This is common in handwriting and formerly in typewritten texts. In
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
, the ditto mark of Western languages has been defined to be equivalent to the . The separate character is to be used in the CJK scripts only. The convention in Polish handwriting, Czech, Swedish, and Austrian German is to use a ditto mark on the baseline together with
em-dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
es, for example: * * *


See also

*
Japanese typographic symbols This article lists Japanese typographic symbols that are not included in kana or kanji groupings. The usages of these symbols are unique and specific. Repetition marks Brackets and quotation marks Phonetic marks Punctuation marks Other ...


References


External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Iteration mark Punctuation East Asian typography Kana Kanji