Punctuation Marks
| JIS X 0208 | JIS X 0213 | Unicode | Name(s) | Usage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 。 | 2123 | 1-1-3 | U+3002 |
kuten (句点?, "sentence point", "period") |
Marks the end of a sentence. Japanese equivalent of full stop or period. |
| 、 | 2122 | 1-1-4 | U+3001 |
tōten (読点?, "reading point") |
Japanese equivalent of a comma |
| ・ | 2126 | 1-1-6 | U+30FB |
nakaguro (中黒?, "middle black") |
Used to separate foreign words and items in lists. For example, if "ビルゲイツ" ‘BillGates’ is written instead of "ビル・ゲイツ" ‘Bill Gates’, a Japanese person unfamiliar with the names might have difficulty understanding which part represents the given name and which one represents the surname. This symbol is known as an interpunct in English. |
| ゠ ＝ |
U+30A0, U+FF1D |
daburu haifun (ダブルハイフン?, "double hyphen") |
Sometimes replaces an English en dash or hyphen when writing foreign words in katakana. It is also rarely used to separate given and family names, though the middle dot (nakaguro) is much more common in these cases. See also double hyphen. |
Read more about this topic: Japanese Typographic Symbols
Famous quotes containing the word marks:
“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)