Comma
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark (Template:Char) in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical. Other fonts give it the appearance of a miniature filled-in figure Template:Char on the baseline.
The comma is used in many contexts and languages, mainly to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses and items in lists mainly when there are three or more items listed. The word comma comes from the Greek Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Grc-transl), which originally meant a cut-off piece, specifically in grammar, a short clause.
A comma-shaped mark is used as a diacritic in several writing systems and is considered distinct from the cedilla. In Ancient Greek, the rough and smooth breathings (Template:Lang) appear above the letter. In Latvian, Romanian, and Livonian, the comma diacritic appears below the letter, as in Template:Char.
For the notation Template:Angbr and /x/ used in this article, see grapheme and phoneme respectively.
See also
- Hebrew cantillation
- Copy editing
- English punctuation
- Latin-script alphabet
- List of typographical symbols and punctuation marks
- Ogonek
- Part of speech
- Sentence clause structure
- Traditional grammar
Related history
- Global spread of the printing press
- History of printing in East Asia
- History of sentence spacing
- History of Western typography
