Division of Words

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Division of Words

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Division of Words, by Frederick W. Hamilton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Division of Words Rules for the Division of Words at the Ends of Lines, with Remarks on Spelling, Syllabication and Pronunciation
Author: Frederick W. Hamilton
Release Date: November 6, 2005 [EBook #17016]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sigal Alon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:
1. Some examples which appear not to follow the preceding guideline are printed thus in the original book. It looks as if sometimes the guideline is mistaken.
2. Italicized text is rendered as text, bold text is rendered as =text=.
3. Accented syllables are marked with a single quote (').
4. This book uses several diacritical marks for phonetics, the table below lists the codings used: (the "x" represents a character with a diacritical mark)
Diacritical mark Above Below
Macron (straight line) [=x] [x=] 2 dots (diaeresis, umlaut) [:x] [x:] Breve (u-shaped symbol) [)x] [x)] Tilde [~x] [x~] Small capital I [Ix]

TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES--


PART VI. NO. 35
DIVISION OF WORDS
RULES FOR THE DIVISION OF WORDS AT THE ENDS OF LINES, WITH REMARKS ON SPELLING, SYLLABICATION AND PRONUNCIATION
BY
FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, LL.D.
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR UNITED TYPOTHET? OF AMERICA

PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA 1918

COPYRIGHT, 1918 UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA CHICAGO, ILL.

PREFACE
The principal purpose of this book is to give in brief form the rules and usages governing the division of words when the measure will not permit ending the word and the line together. This matter is considered in its relation to good spacing and to the legibility of the printed page.
Leading up to the discussion will be found some consideration of spelling, the formation of syllables, pronunciation, and accent. This consideration is necessarily brief, and no attempt has been made to give the rules for spelling which are so frequently found in spelling books, or any of them. In the writer's opinion such rules are of very little practical value. Good spelling is not so much the result of remembering and applying rules as it is of observation, practice, and memory. The lists of certain types of troublesome words may be found useful for ready reference.
Syllable formation, pronunciation, and accent are considered because it is hoped that the volumes of this series, particularly those in


Part VI (Correct Literary Composition) and Part VIII (History of Printing), will
contribute something to the general education of the apprentice as well as to his skill in the trade.

CONTENTS
SPELLING
PRONUNCIATION
ACCENT
DIVISION OF WORDS
RULES FOR DIVISION OF WORDS
IMPORTANCE OF SPACING
DIVISION IN LINES OF DISPLAY
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
REVIEW QUESTIONS

DIVISION OF WORDS
The division of words when the words do not exactly fit the register of the line has always been a source of trouble. In the days of the manuscript makers devices such as crowding letters, reducing their size, or omitting them altogether were freely used and words were arbitrarily divided when the scribes so desired. During the greater part of the time every scribe divided as he pleased, often in ways which seem very strange to us, like the Greek custom of dividing always after a vowel and even dividing words of one syllable. With the invention of printing, however, the number of these devices was greatly diminished. It became a matter of spacing out the line or dividing the word. Of course that meant frequent word division and called for a systematization of rules with regard to this division. These rules for division are necessarily based on spelling and syllabication.

SPELLING
The idea that there is one right way to combine the letters representing a certain sound or group of sounds, that is a word, and that all other ways are wrong and little short of shameful is a comparatively new idea among us. The English speaking folk held down to a comparatively recent time that any group of letters which approximately represented the sound was amply sufficient as a symbol of the word. This sort of phonetic spelling was commonly followed, and followed with great freedom. No obligation was recognized to be consistent. In ordinary writing, such as letters and the like, it is not unusual to find the same word spelled in a variety of ways in the same document.
The last century has brought about an attempt to standardize spelling into conventional forms any departure from which is regarded as highly derogatory to the writer. In many cases these forms are fixed arbitrarily, and in some there is even now disagreement among the highest authorities. These difficulties and disagreements