Scriptio continua
Encyclopedia
Scriptio continua is a style of writing without space
s or other marks between words or sentences.
In the West, the oldest Greek and Latin inscriptions use word dividers, but these are rare in the later periods when scriptio continua becomes the norm (in Classical Greek and late Classical Latin). By around 1000 AD, alphabetical texts in Europe are written with spaces between words. Scriptio continua is still in use in Thai
, other Southeast Asian abugida
s, and in languages that use Chinese character
s (Chinese
and Japanese
) though with sentence breaks. Modern Chinese differs from ancient scriptio continua in that it does at least use punctuation, although this was borrowed from the West only about a century ago. Before this, the only forms of punctuation found in Chinese writings were punctuations to denote quotes, proper nouns, and emphasis.
Before the advent of the codex
(book), Latin and Greek script was written on scrolls. Reading continuous script on a scroll was more akin to reading a musical score than reading text. The reader would typically already have memorized the text through an instructor, had memorized where the breaks were, and the reader almost always read aloud, usually to an audience in a kind of reading performance, using the text as a cue sheet. Organizing the text to make it more rapidly ingested (through punctuation) was not needed and eventually the current system of rapid silent reading for information replaced the older slower performance declaimed aloud for dramatic effect.
's De finibus bonorum et malorum:
Which in modern punctuation is:
es and domain name
s where because the "space" character is invalid, the address for a website for "Building Product Marketing" is written, scriptio continua, as buildingproductmarketing.com - without spaces between the separate words.
Spring and Fall (1880) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
rendered in scriptio continua (20 characters per line):
MARGARETAREYOUGRIEVI
NGOVERGOLDENGROVEUNL
EAVINGLEAVESLIKETHET
HINGSOFMANYOUWITHYOU
RFRESHTHOUGHTSCAREFO
RCANYOUAHASTHEHEARTG
ROWSOLDERITWILLCOMET
OSUCHSIGHTSCOLDERBYA
NDBYNORSPAREASIGHTHO
UGHWORLDSOFWANWOODLE
AFMEALLIEANDYETYOUWI
LLWEEPANDKNOWWHYNOWN
OMATTERCHILDTHENAMES
ORROWSSPRINGSARETHES
AMENORMOUTHHADNONORM
INDEXPRESSEDWHATHEAR
THEARDOFGHOSTGUESSED
ITISTHEBLIGHTMANWASB
ORNFORITISMARGARETY
OUMOURNFOR
Spring and Fall (1880) by Gerard Manley Hopkins rendered in normal punctuation:
transcription (in which words are normally divided), and finally an English translation:
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
s or other marks between words or sentences.
In the West, the oldest Greek and Latin inscriptions use word dividers, but these are rare in the later periods when scriptio continua becomes the norm (in Classical Greek and late Classical Latin). By around 1000 AD, alphabetical texts in Europe are written with spaces between words. Scriptio continua is still in use in Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
, other Southeast Asian abugida
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
s, and in languages that use Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s (Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
) though with sentence breaks. Modern Chinese differs from ancient scriptio continua in that it does at least use punctuation, although this was borrowed from the West only about a century ago. Before this, the only forms of punctuation found in Chinese writings were punctuations to denote quotes, proper nouns, and emphasis.
Before the advent of the codex
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
(book), Latin and Greek script was written on scrolls. Reading continuous script on a scroll was more akin to reading a musical score than reading text. The reader would typically already have memorized the text through an instructor, had memorized where the breaks were, and the reader almost always read aloud, usually to an audience in a kind of reading performance, using the text as a cue sheet. Organizing the text to make it more rapidly ingested (through punctuation) was not needed and eventually the current system of rapid silent reading for information replaced the older slower performance declaimed aloud for dramatic effect.
Latin text
Latin text in scriptio continua with typical capital letters, taken from CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's De finibus bonorum et malorum:
- NEQVEPORROQVISQVAMESTQVIDOLOREMIPSVMQVIADOLORSITAMETCONSECTETVRADIPISCIVELIT
Which in modern punctuation is:
- Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsumLorem ipsumIn publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum[p] is placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the graphics elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout...
quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit… - ‘Nobody likes pain for its own sake, or looks for it and wants to have it, just because it is pain…’
Modern English
A form of Scriptio continua has become common in internet e-mail addressE-mail address
An email address identifies an email box to which email messages are delivered. An example format of an email address is lewis@example.net which is read as lewis at example dot net...
es and domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
s where because the "space" character is invalid, the address for a website for "Building Product Marketing" is written, scriptio continua, as buildingproductmarketing.com - without spaces between the separate words.
Spring and Fall (1880) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
rendered in scriptio continua (20 characters per line):
MARGARETAREYOUGRIEVI
NGOVERGOLDENGROVEUNL
EAVINGLEAVESLIKETHET
HINGSOFMANYOUWITHYOU
RFRESHTHOUGHTSCAREFO
RCANYOUAHASTHEHEARTG
ROWSOLDERITWILLCOMET
OSUCHSIGHTSCOLDERBYA
NDBYNORSPAREASIGHTHO
UGHWORLDSOFWANWOODLE
AFMEALLIEANDYETYOUWI
LLWEEPANDKNOWWHYNOWN
OMATTERCHILDTHENAMES
ORROWSSPRINGSARETHES
AMENORMOUTHHADNONORM
INDEXPRESSEDWHATHEAR
THEARDOFGHOSTGUESSED
ITISTHEBLIGHTMANWASB
ORNFORITISMARGARETY
OUMOURNFOR
Spring and Fall (1880) by Gerard Manley Hopkins rendered in normal punctuation:
- Margaret, are you grieving
- Over Goldengrove unleaving?
- Leaves, like the things of man, you
- With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
- Ah! as the heart grows older
- It will come to such sights colder
- By and by, nor spare a sigh
- Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
- And yet you will weep and know why.
- Now no matter, child, the name:
- Sorrow's springs are the same.
- Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
- What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
- It is the blight man was born for,
- It is Margaret you mourn for.
Chinese language
Here is an example of a normal Chinese sentence, then what it would look like with spaces between words, then a pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
transcription (in which words are normally divided), and finally an English translation:
- 北京在中国北方；广州在中国南方。
- 北京 在 中国 北方； 广州 在 中国 南方。
- BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
is in Northern China; GuangzhouGuangzhouGuangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
is in Southern China.