Division of Words

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Division of Words

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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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OF WORDS ***

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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 TYPOTHETÆ 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