[softwarelist] Re: Smart quotes feature
- From: Peter Newble <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:06:26 +0000 (GMT)
In message <812222fe50.martinv@xxxxxx>, Martin Vethak
<martinv@xxxxxx> writes
> >Astounding to me was they used 'double left quote' in the
> >german name, albeit we use it on the right.
In article <Qgv+RVFk$RrLFw$s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David Pilling
<flist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I wonder how widespread this difference in usage is. First
> time I have heard of it. How did the difference happen.
Different languages have different practices, for instance (and
oversimplifying somewhat):
UK English: raised quotation marks: single and, within that,
double:
U+2018 . . U+2019, and within that: U+201C . . . U+201D
US English: raised quotation marks: double and, within that,
single:
U+201C . . . U+201D, and within that: U+2018 . . U+2019
(But UK & US practice varies and has changed over the years)
Italian, European Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, etc.: double
guillemets, facing outwards:
U+00AB . . . U+00BB
French: double guillemets, facing outwards, but separated by a
space from the enclosed text -- or, for reported speech, no
enclosing marks but a dash instead.
Modern German, Danish (sometimes), Russian (sometimes), etc.:
Double comma at the start, double turned comma at the end:
U+201E . . . U+201C
Older German, Danish, etc.: Double guillemets, facing inwards:
U+00BB . . U+00AB
The names given, for instance to HTML entities, tend to be
US-centric, hence &ldquo ('left double quote') for the raised
'66' mark which is a right-hand quote in German. Then there's the
matter of the Adobe morons who couldn't tell the difference
between a quotation mark and a bird, and named two Postscript
glyphs 'guillemotleft' and 'guillemotright'!
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