Meaning of middle dot | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Synonym of interpunct ⟨·⟩.
2. Synonym of middle point ⟨⸳⟩.

Examples

“The Greek manuscripts of later date⟳ show⟳ a system more like⟳ that now employed. About the ninth century the comma appears to denote the slight pause, while the high dot (·) indicates a colon or semicolon, and the full stop⟳ is denoted by a larger dot or double⟳ dot and a space. A little later the interrogation point⟳ (;) appears, though not very frequently. The Latin grammarians adopted the punctuation by dots from the Greeks, but seemingly modified the system slightly so as to give⟳ the middle dot the middle value and the lower the smallest.”

“At the end⟳ of a complete⟳ sentence (Latin periodus), the speaker paused to take⟳ on air, and that pause was sometimes indicated with a high dot ·. A speaker might also pause when he had covered a large portion of a sentence − a member; in Latin this was a colon, the same word used for the “great gut.” If such a pause were indicated at all in writing, it was as a dot on the line, as the period is now written. A shorter division of a periodus was a comma, and the pause to catch⟳ the breath after a comma was sometimes shown in writing by a middle dot ⸳.”

“Museum librarian Aristophanes of Byzantium is credited with the punctuation system used later by Greek grammarians in the Alexandrian schools, dividing discourse into sections by means of a pointing system of dots: middle dot [⸳] a the end⟳ of a brief clause (‘komma’) for the pause we mark⟳ with our comma; low dot on the line [.] for a long clause (‘kolon’), like⟳ our colon or semicolon; and high dot [·] to close⟳ a sentence (‘periodos’), like⟳ our full stop⟳; distinctions not consistently used.”

“Alcui (like⟳ Aristophanes) also advocated the use⟳ of a baseline dot (called the comma) to indicate⟳ a short pause; a middle dot (called the colon) for a medium pause; and a high dot (called the periodos) for the longest break⟳.”

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